Helena Deserves Great Schools and Great Teachers
Helena Deserves Great Schools and Great Teachers
Helena’s public schools play an integral role in our communities, serving as hubs for learning, social events, and extracurricular activities. They represent who we are and what we value.
For most of us, public schools provided the foundation upon which the rest of our lives were built – a foundation made possible by the generosity of generations that came before us. Now it’s time for us to maintain the tradition of providing quality education to our kids and grandkids.
The 2025 Technology Levies
The Helena School District Board of Trustees has requested the approval of technology levies for elementary schools and the high schools. The election is scheduled for May 6, 2025. There will be an all-mail ballot, and ballots will be mailed April 21st, 2025.
This year’s levy request is for critical technology funding only. It pays for network services, licensing, and replacement and maintenance of teacher, student, and classroom devices. Teachers use this technology as a tool to build connections and engage their students.
We haven’t updated our tech levy since 2004. In the last 20 years, technology has become vital for education and workplace function. It is everywhere. Our current levy “keeps the lights on” but doesn’t allow us to replace ANY devices or to update our network. If something breaks, we are out of luck!
You might wonder, “Why does technology cost $4 million a year?” This sounds like a very high number, but when you consider the rising costs of basic internet service, the licensing for all of the applications needed in the modern, connected school, conservative device replacement needs, and service costs, it adds up quickly. The Helena School District currently has inadequate revenue to maintain existing services and the educational opportunities our community expects and deserves.
In 2004, when our current levy was passed, the technology “footprint” of the district was MUCH smaller. We had a small fraction of the devices we have now, and the demands on our technology infrastructure were much less. Consider that smartphones as we know them didn’t really exist until 2007! The last 20 years have seen massive changes in education and workplace technology. And all the while our technology levy remained the same.
We’ve all seen this change in our personal devices and services. When you bought a computer game in the early 2000’s, you paid one price, put that CD in your disc drive, and you were good to go until that computer stopped working. Now, all software is license-based: we pay per user per year to keep our devices running the tools we need for work and play. School applications use the same model…we pay yearly to keep them up to date. Our existing levy could not have anticipated this dramatic change.
What do the levies mean for you?
To determine what the Elementary levy would mean for your household annually, use the multiplier of $2.52 per $100,000 of market value of your home as it appears on your tax bill.
The High School Tech Levy is for $6.83 per $100,000 of market value of your home as it appears on your tax bill.
Join our efforts to maintain and improve Helena’s schools For Our Kids For Our Future!