The Medford School Board will consider next school year whether a local option levy is needed to help the Medford School District generate more revenue as it faces a $15 million budget shortfall in the next two years.

Medford School District Superintendent Bret Champion introduced the idea to school board members following their adoption of the 2024-25 school year budget, which passed 6-1, with Michael Williams dissenting. The $288 million budget contains $7.6 million in cuts and the elimination of 32 and a half positions, including three layoffs.

Following the budget’s adoption, Champion told board members that this summer, district administration will examine the previously announced proposal to consolidate Medford elementary schools and the possibility of a local option levy. Those issues come in addition to “indicators” from Gov. Tina Kotek and lawmakers on what next year’s proposed state budget might look like, according to Champion.

Those “three big pieces” will be part of a proposal district administrators bring back to the school board for consideration in the fall, Champion said. The proposal could also include scenarios with some of the “big pieces” not included, he added.

“The idea is to take these big concepts, thinking about the legislative session and bringing back the proposal based on those factors,” Champion said at the meeting, held at Oakdale Middle School.

Brad Earl, assistant superintendent of operations, told board members that district administrators will be “looking to engage some people to help us this summer” with what potential local option levy could look like.

“You’ll hear about that. We’re not going to keep you in the dark over the summer,” Earl said. “But we’ve got to get started. It’s a lot of work.”

Board members did not discuss the potential levy or the school district’s upcoming proposal following Earl’s remarks.

In an interview after the meeting, Earl, who has been with the school district since 2010, that the district has never implemented a local option levy before.

“It is a monumental step, for sure, to ask the community to provide additional support for schools,” Earl said. “It is a huge responsibility on our part, and that’s why we want to take several steps before we get to an ask.”

He added, “We may never get to an ask.”

Oregon school districts, education service districts and community colleges can issue general obligation bonds only after voters approve a bond levy, according to information provided on the Oregon School Boards Association’s website.

Bond levy elections can be held either the second Tuesday in March, the third Tuesday in May, the third Tuesday in September or the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, the OSBA said.

If passed by voters, residents would have to pay anywhere from a penny to $1.99 per $1,000 of tax-assessed value on a home for five years, according to Earl.

He noted bond levies commonly get passed in the Willamette Valley, but not Southern Oregon.

“It’s not that people outside of the Willamette Valley don’t care about their schools, I just don’t think they feel as confident in their income to be able to support that kind of thing,” Earl said. “It’s a tax, and people are feeling a little tax-fatigued.”

Earl said the notion of a levy came through district officials’ internal conversations about how to tackle the budget shortfall.

“We started just saying, ‘What are all the options that are available to us?’” Earl said. “You have to consider all options, even if we don’t end up going out for an election.”

Over the summer, internal school district conversations about a potential levy will range from the rate voters could pay to hiring experts to conduct focus groups, Earl said.

Board Chairwoman Cynthia Wright said in an interview following the meeting that it is a “big ask” of the school district for voters to approve a levy.

“I think that if we are going to be looking at doing some dramatic cuts the following year, that we have to do our due diligence and make sure we’ve done everything in our power to not have to have to make those serious steps — and one of those options is a levy,” Wright said.