257.29 - EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM.
257.29 EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM.
1. An educational improvement program is established to provide
additional funding for school districts in which the regular program
district cost per pupil for a budget year is one hundred ten percent
of the regular program state cost per pupil for the budget year and
which have approved the use of the instructional support program
established in section 257.18. A board of directors that wishes to
consider participating in the educational improvement program shall
hold a hearing on the question of participation and the maximum
percent of the regular program district cost of the district that
will be used. The hearing shall be held in the manner provided in
section 257.18 for the instructional support program. Following the
hearing, the board may direct the county commissioner of elections to
submit the question to the registered voters of the school district
at an election held on a date specified in section 39.2, subsection
4, paragraph "c". If a majority of those voting on the question
favors participation in the program, the board shall adopt a
resolution to participate and shall certify the results of the
election to the department of management and the district shall
participate in the program. If a majority of those voting on the
question does not favor participation, the district shall not
participate in the program.
2. The educational improvement program shall provide additional
revenues each fiscal year equal to a specified percent of the regular
program district cost of the district, as determined by the board but
not more than the maximum percent authorized by the electors if an
election has been held. Certification of a district's participation
for a budget year, the method of funding, and the amount to be raised
shall be made to the department of management not later than April 15
of the base year.
3. The educational improvement program shall be funded by either
an educational improvement property tax or by a combination of an
educational improvement property tax and an educational improvement
income surtax. The method of raising the educational improvement
moneys shall be determined by the board. Subject to the limitation
in section 298.14, if the board uses a combination of an educational
improvement property tax and an educational improvement income
surtax, the board shall determine the percent of income surtax to be
imposed, expressed as full percentage points, not to exceed twenty
percent.
4. The department of management shall establish the amount of the
educational improvement property tax to be levied or the amount of
the combination of the educational improvement property tax to be
levied and the amount of the school district income surtax to be
imposed for each school year that the educational improvement amount
is authorized. The educational improvement property tax and income
surtax, if an income surtax is imposed, shall be levied and imposed,
collected, and paid to the school district in the manner provided for
the instructional support program in sections 257.21 through 257.26.
Moneys received by a school district under the educational
improvement program are miscellaneous income.
5. Once approved at an election, the authority of the board to
use the educational improvement program shall continue until the
board votes to rescind the educational improvement program or the
voters of the school district by majority vote order the
discontinuance of the program. The board shall submit at an election
held on a date specified in section 39.2, subsection 4, paragraph
"c", the proposition whether to discontinue the program upon the
receipt of a petition signed by not less than one hundred eligible
electors or thirty percent of the number of electors voting at the
last preceding school election, whichever is greater.
6. Participation in an educational improvement program is not
affected by a change in the boundaries of the school district, except
as otherwise provided in this section. If each school district
involved in school reorganization under chapter 275 has approved an
educational improvement program, and if the voters have not voted
upon the question of participation in the program in the reorganized
district, the educational improvement program shall be in effect for
the reorganized district that has been approved for the least amount
and the shortest time in any of the districts.
7. Notwithstanding the requirement in subsection 1 that the
regular program district cost per pupil for a budget year is one
hundred ten percent of the regular state cost per pupil, the board of
directors may participate in the educational improvement program as
provided in this section if the school district had adopted an
enrichment levy of fifteen percent of the state cost per pupil
multiplied by the budget enrollment in the district prior to July 1,
1992, and upon expiration of the period for which the enrichment levy
was adopted, adopts a resolution for the use of the instructional
support program established in section 257.18. The maximum percent
of the regular district cost of the district that may be used under
this subsection shall not exceed five percent. Section History: Recent Form
89 Acts, ch 135, § 29; 90 Acts, ch 1190, § 9; 92 Acts, ch 1171,
§2; 92 Acts, ch 1187, §3; 93 Acts, ch 1, § 5; 95 Acts, ch 67, § 53;
2008 Acts, ch 1115, §34, 35, 71
Referred to in § 298.14
Limit on total surtax, § 298.14