Houston Public Schools board certifies final levy, designates polling place and accepts donations

At its meeting, the Houston Public School District board certified its final 2024 payable-2025 school tax levy and approved several routine resolutions including combined polling places and acceptance of donations.

During the Truth in Taxation presentation earlier in the evening, a district presenter explained how market values, state aid and levies interact and stressed that most district revenue comes from state aid. The presenter said the district’s Long-Term Facilities Maintenance program generates roughly $876,000 and that "we actually get 88% paid by state aid. And our levy has to cover 12%." The presenter also explained that property taxes comprise less than 5% of the district’s revenue and that the district’s proposed pay-25 levy calculation resulted in an unchanged tax rate of 0.62 while producing a higher levy amount for the district to collect.

Later in the meeting the board read and adopted a resolution "certifying the 2024 payable 2025 final school tax levy" under Minnesota statutes. As read into the record, the resolution lists a total levy of $1,655,739.60 and authorizes the clerk of Independent School District No. 294 (Houston Public Schools) to certify the levy to the county auditor of Houston and Winona Counties. The motion to adopt the resolution carried on a roll call vote recorded in the transcript as the motion passing.

The board also adopted a resolution establishing and combining polling places for certain precincts and designated the Hurricane Hub at 202 Sheridan Street, South Houston, Minnesota, as the combined polling place for district elections not held on statewide election days.

In a third resolution the board accepted a list of donations, including $2,500 from Houston Hoe Down and $2,500 from the Houston Hurricane Foundation toward the Houston Elementary sound system, multiple smaller donations to the HoloDazzle holiday store and other program-specific gifts. The donations resolution was read into the record and approved by the board.

Other actions: the board approved consent items earlier in the agenda, accepted the staff seniority list, and completed routine first readings of several policies. The clerk was directed to take the ministerial step of certifying the adopted levy to county officials; no further legislative action was recorded at the meeting.

Next steps: the clerk will certify the levy to county auditors as authorized by the adopted resolution; the board will review vendor follow-up on facilities items (such as the signage proposal) at a future meeting.