Cardinal voters to decide on extending levy

ELDON - Residents in the Cardinal Community School District will go to the polls March 2 to vote on extending a physical plant and equipment levy another 10 years.

The property tax levy is $1.34 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. Residents of the district have been paying a physical plant and equipment levy for about 20 years.

In the past 10 years, Cardinal has used the PPEL to fund:

' School buses.

' Student computers.

' Teacher technology.

' Remodeling band/music rooms.

' Increased parking at the elementary school.

' Replacing the roof of the high school common area,

' New concrete throughout the district.

' New elementary playground.

The tax must be renewed every 10 years to stay on the books.

The school district put this levy up for a vote in March 2020, more than a year before the tax was to expire at the end of fiscal year 2020-2021. Voters narrowly rejected the extension, with 52 percent voting against.

Cardinal Superintendent Joel Pedersen said he takes responsibility for the measure failing in 2020. He felt he didn't do enough to educate the public that the levy was not a new tax but one district residents were already paying.

'If this levy goes away, it will put us in a difficult position compared to our neighbors,” Pedersen said, who noted the district would lose about $300 per student without the PPEL. 'A large amount of this goes toward technology for our students. We've always offered some of the best technology because the voters always supported us.”