On the May 6 mail-in ballot, Livingston residents will vote on two levies: one is a levy for the high school building reserve, and the other is a tech levy for Park High. According to Livingston Public Schools, these levies combined will cost about $6.13/year per $100,000 home value. The building reserve will be used to help improve the school maintenance and security, and the tech levy will fund new and improved technology and cybersecurity upgrades to make the ever-growing digital side of schooling even stronger, more secure, and easier to use.
If passed, the tech levy will provide an additional $185,000 per year over the current levy and will run for a decade, costing $3.36 annually per $100,000 home value, or only $0.28 a month added to the local property tax. With the current tech levy having been static and the rate untouched since 2003, when media content was taught using TV’s shared between teachers and computers were rare, and the price of new technology always rising, the current levy does not match the growing needs of the school. This new levy will help the high school implement 1:1 student devices, assist with upgrades to the CTE (career and technical education) computer labs, such as those in the business, tech ed, and art rooms, help fund upgrades to library computers and other tech, update the wireless network, sustain future purchases such as the Canvas and Adobe software used across the high school, and replace the school’s remaining obsolete technology, such as district phones, servers, and both staff and student desktop computers.
As it stands, general funding from the state of Montana does not match the needs of the Livingston school system, and so, levies are necessary in order for districts like ours in Livingston to raise the funds to maintain and grow the resources available to students. LPS’s stated goals with the tech levy are to provide students with an upgraded and secure learning environment, upgrade current CTE tech to remain competitive with CTE standards, expand cybersecurity awareness and training, replace outdated technology, and update safety measures; as stated in the previous needs and reasons for the tech levy, these goals and objectives would help PHS and the Livingston district to have a more advanced digital learning environment. These goals show why, in our Livingston school district, the tech levy needs to get passed, and what the levy is about.