ISD 709 officials present payable‑2025 levy plan; school portion of property tax falls 2.86%

Simone Zunich, the district’s chief financial officer and business manager, told a June 19 truth‑in‑taxation hearing that the Duluth Public Schools (Independent School District 709) levy for payable 2025 will be lower than the previous year. “The school district levy is actually going down this year, by 2.86%,” Zunich said, citing a reduction she gave as $1,323,441.87.

The hearing, presented under Minnesota Statute 275.065, reviewed the district’s proposed levies for the 2024–25 school fiscal year, how district revenues are composed and how those revenues are spent. Zunich said the district’s revenue mix is heavily weighted to state aid (about 60.84%), with federal aid at 7.48% and property tax levies accounting for roughly 25.79% of revenue. The district showed levy distribution by fund as approximately 38.2% to the general fund, 1.7% to the community education fund and 60.2% to debt service.

Zunich reviewed recent referendum and bond action. She said a May 14 capital projects (sometimes called a “tech” or capital levy) referendum did not pass (47.84% yes, 52.16% no) and that a separate November referendum included a successful bond refunding that she said saved the district about $2.6 million annually; the capital projects question on…