Physical Plant and Equipment Levy renewal set for March in Lisbon
The Lisbon Schools will be holding a special election in March to continue the physical plant and equipment levy for the district.
The special election will be March 4, 2025. Superintendent Autumn Pino reiterated that this is not a new tax or increase of tax rates, but continuation of a fund that the school uses.
“We use this fund for building and ground improvements to the district, for bus purchases and for technology purchases,” Pino said. “It’s a vital funding stream for our district that keeps these expenses away from the general fund.”
The measure to renew the levy needs to pass at a simple majority (50 percent plus one vote).
Lisbon purchases new bus
Lisbon Schools will be purchasing a new school bus to join the fleet this winter.
Superintendent Autumn Pino said there is currently a shortage of new buses across the state, so Lisbon was getting in a bid for purchasing a new bus earlier. Lisbon will be purchasing an 84-passenger bus, since that works best for the number of bus routes the district has as well as transportation to activities.
Pino said a new bus can take upwards of 90 days to arrive, so by purchasing now, the new bus will be ready later this spring.
“If we waited for longer, the sooner this bus could be added to our fleet would be January 2026,” Pino said.
John Baker asked what would happen to the bus that this vehicle will replace. Pino said that bus will move to being used as transportation for activities for the district until it no longer passes inspections, as opposed to running a twice a day bus route.
Lisbon approves policy changes
Discussion on open enrollment and transportation options
The Lisbon School Board approved a number of updated school board policies from Iowa Association of School Boards primers.
One of those included updates to transportation provided by school districts for open-enrolled students.
“We have the right to come into a neighboring school district up to two miles in order to pick up a student open enrolled into our district,” said superintendent Autumn Pino. “Likewise, neighboring school districts have the right to do the same.”
Lisbon has neighboring school districts on many of it’s borders – Mount Vernon, Anamosa and North Cedar among them, and this policy would give the district some flexibility to pick up rural students in those districts if they are open-enrolled to Lisbon Schools.
Pino said it can be something the district discusses with parents when students are open enrolling, to see if they can be charted onto a bus route.
“We have to make sure our residents of our district are still served in our bus routes, and that adding an additional stop does not add too much time students are on the bus,” Pino said. “If adding someone to a route adds too much time for the students on our route we wouldn’t add them.”
Board member Robyn Richey said it would be worth looking into on a case-by-case basis, as transportation for students to school is always a minor challenge for open enrolled students.
Board member John Prasil agreed that if the wording was the district can decide on a case-by-case basis, he would be happy to adopt the ordinance and let the transportation director decide if it is something that can be done.
“We know there is a shortage of bus drivers, and if this is a practical piece to help families in our district get to schools, we should look at it,” Pino said.