Pekin schools ask voters for PPEL renewal

While the only real competition in the Pekin School Board Elections is for the Director District 4 seat between Heidi Baker and Shawn Echelberry, voters in the district are being asked to approve a renewal of a Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (PPEL) for the district. Pekin Schools have had a voted PPEL for some time, and while it was overwhelmingly reauthorized in 2009, receiving 69 percent of the vote, Superintendent Dave Harper is not leaving anything to chance in this year’s election, and he wishes to stress to voters that the PPEL is not a new tax at all.

“We’re just asking voters to continue it,” Harper said.

The Pekin Community School District currently has a board-approved PPEL of 33 cents per thousand, a choice that is very common in Iowa school districts. What will appear on the ballot is authorization to continue with the voter- approved PPEL. In this case, the district would continue to levy 34 cents per thousand under the voter- approved PPEL.

“The board could have gone up to 67 cents but haven’t, for the fact that they are conscious about our tax levy and what we need to put on our taxpayers,” Harper said.

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