On Monday, June 9, 2025, the Board of Directors of the Southeast Warren Community School District approved a resolution calling for an election to be held on November 4, 2025, to renew the school district’s Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (PPEL) of One-Dollar and Thirty-Four Cents ($1.34) per One Thousand Dollars ($1,000) of the assessed valuation of the taxable property within the school district.
Approving this renewal of the levy on November 4, 2025, will NOT increase property taxes.
Expect to hear more in the coming months regarding the Voter Approved Physical Plant and Equipment Levy and the election itself on November 4, 2025.
What is the Physical Plant and Equipment Levy?
The school board may annually certify a regular Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (PPEL) in an amount up to $0.33 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation. This is the case in our school district today.
Voters may authorize a voted Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (VPPEL) for a period not exceeding ten years and, in an amount, not exceeding $1.34 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation. The VPPEL revenues may be used for the same purposes as the PPEL revenues. In addition, the board may obtain loans against future VPPEL revenues and may repay that debt with interest from the VPPEL. Currently at Southeast Warren, we have a VPPEL of $1,.34; if approved in November, the district’s VPPEL would remain at $1.34.
Iowa Code section 298.2.
This levy may be used for the following purposes: purchase and improvement of grounds; construction of schoolhouses or buildings and opening roads to schoolhouses or buildings; purchase, lease, or lease-purchase of equipment or technology exceeding $500 per transaction; payment of debts contracted for the erection or construction of schoolhouses or buildings, not including interest on bonds; procuring or acquisition of library facilities; repairing, remodeling, reconstructing, improving, or expanding the schoolhouses or buildings and additions to existing schoolhouses; expenditures for energy conservation; rental of facilities; purchase of transportation equipment for transporting students; purchase or lease-purchase of school buildings; equipment purchases for recreational purposes; payments to a municipality or other entity as required under section 403.19, subsection 2 [TIF]; and demolition, clean-up and other costs incurred within two years of a natural disaster. Revenues may not be used for employee salaries or travel; supplies; printing costs or media services; or for any other purpose not expressly authorized by Iowa Code.
For specific appropriate and inappropriate uses of the PPEL fund and revenue sources, refer to Iowa Administrative Code chapter 281—98 and the Iowa Uniform Administrative Procedures Manual, chapter 9.
Ballot Language
The following language will be included on the November 4, 2025, ballot:
Shall the Board of Directors of the Southeast Warren Community School District, in the Counties of Lucas and Warren, State of Iowa, for the purpose of purchasing and improving grounds; constructing schoolhouses or buildings and opening roads to schoolhouses or buildings; purchasing of buildings; purchase, lease or lease-purchase of technology and equipment; paying debts contracted for the erection or construction of schoolhouses or buildings, not including interest on bonds; procuring or acquisition of libraries; repairing, remodeling, reconstructing, improving, or expanding the schoolhouses or buildings and additions to existing schoolhouses; expenditures for energy conservation; renting facilities under Iowa
Code Chapter 28E; purchasing transportation equipment for transporting students; lease purchase option agreements for school buildings or equipment; purchasing equipment authorized by law; or for any purpose or purposes now or hereafter authorized by law, be authorized for a period of ten (10) years, to levy annually, a voter-approved physical plant and equipment property tax not to exceed One Dollar Thirty-Four Cents ($1.34) per One Thousand Dollars ($1,000) of the assessed valuation of the taxable property within the school district commencing with the levy for collection in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2027, or each year thereafter?