The plant facility levy (PFL) is a voter-approved levy that generates revenue that can be used for capital projects, building maintenance, site acquisition, and capital purchases. West Ada School District has received plant levy authority from its voters since 1972. A plant levy sets an amount up to which a district can levy. Unlike other taxing districts, an increase in the market value does not increase the amount of revenue received by the district. Instead, the cost per $100,000 of taxable value decreases.
Over the last decade, plant facility revenue has been used to repair roofs, carpet, and paint schools, construct new school space, and make capital improvements. Maintenance projects typically consume the majority of plant levy revenue budgeted each school year.
On an annual basis, West Ada School District solicits and receives school maintenance, construction, and capital improvement requests from school administrators and from various departments including curriculum, technology and maintenance. These requests are analyzed by a team of experts and prioritized in a series of categories based on the most pressing needs and the estimated costs.
Following are the plant facility categories in a typical budget year:
Blacktop - Examples include fixing damaged sidewalks, repairing and replacing failing parking lots, replacing tennis courts, and fixing running tracks.
Building improvements - Examples of these projects include fixing and replacing broken of worn out windows, sinks, toilets, wallpaper, gymnasium equipment, drinking fountains, door locks and hardware.
Career Technical Education - Budgeting from the plant levy for career technical programs is often for the remodel or development of classroom space to offer a career technical program. For example, the program requested funding to develop a diesel mechanic program at the Ada Professional Technical programs housed at Meridian High.
Custodian - Custodial requests include large-scale cleaning equipment.
District Projects - District plant levy projects are usually either to acquire property to build future schools or large capital projects. For example, Willow Creek Elementary was built over a three-year period using plant levy revenue to meet the demands of overcrowding.
Electrical - These projects generally update older electrical systems either to increase their capacity or to improve safety.
Floors and Ceilings - These projects include replacing floor tiles and worn-out carpet and re-finishing gym floors.
Grounds - Grounds requests include mowers, vehicles, and lawn and irrigation equipment.
Irrigation/Playground - Playgrounds and school fields often require fence repairs, equipment repairs or replacement, tree removal, and installation of gates to the grounds for public access.
Mechanical systems - The district maintains a variety of cooling and heating systems depending on the age of the building. Projects include replacing furnaces, heat pumps, exhaust fans, and HVAC units.
Miscellaneous - Examples of uncategorized projects include replacement of portable buildings, installation of bike racks, enclosure of elementary libraries in existing buildings, purchase of white boards, installation of new lockers, or replacement of safety and lab equipment.
Paint - Examples include applying external sealer and interior and exterior painting.
Plumbing - These repairs include repairing sewer lines and water lines, replacing fixtures, replacing water heaters, and completing other plumbing repairs.
Roofing - School roofs are analyzed and replaced on a 20-25-year cycle.
Technology - Examples of technology requests include district network-wide equipment in addition to upgrades to school computer labs or school-level equipment needed for the district’s computer network.
