The new levy would go toward three goals: Updating the district’s transportation fleet by purchasing a new bus each year; repairing roofs, playgrounds and sidewalks; and maintaining the district’s 1:1 laptop initiative for students in first through 12th grades.

By supporting those goals, school officials say the PPEL would also free up money to renovate schools, such as expanding the high school to remove portable classrooms. AHST currently levies a board-approved 33-cent PPEL, which generates roughly $100,000 each year. Combined with the proposed voted PPEL, the district would take in as much as $400,000 annually. The new tax would generate a total of about $3 million over the 10 years voters would authorize the levy.

Voters in Walnut approved an expanded PPEL in 2010 for the maximum $1.34 per $1,000 of taxable valuation, according to the Iowa Department of Education. If the reorganization with AHST eventually takes place, Iowa Code states the reorganized district would have a PPEL “for the least amount and the shortest time for which it is in effect in any of the districts.”