SKSD’s board of directors recently began discussions about a new maintenance-and-operations levy that likely will be on the ballot in February.

The district’s last four-year levy passed in 2009 with 57.6 percent of the vote. SKSD officials estimated in 2008 that taxpayers’ contributions would increase from $1.90 to $2.27 per $1,000 assessed valuation through the end of the last school year before it increased by one cent. According to Kitsap County Auditor’s records, the rate actually increased from about $2.01 to approximately $2.50 in 2010 and to $2.65 per $1,000 assessed valuation in 2011.

Rates for SKSD’s levies have risen in recent years because voters continue to approve higher rates in addition to a declining total assessed value of the property in the school district.

District financial operations officer Sandy Rotella said the latter could reach $3 next year if that decline continues.

“Nobody would’ve projected what I’m talking about today,” said Rotella, who was hired in 2011 by SKSD. “My crystal ball probably is as cloudy as any other economist.”

School board president Kathryn Simpson again expressed frustration that the state is not meeting its “paramount” duty to fully fund basic education.

In January, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled that the Legislature has not done enough in that regard. The McCleary family of Jefferson County started that lawsuit in 2009 and several school districts in the state, including South Kitsap, joined.

“This has got to stop somewhere,” Simpson said. “It’s extremely frustrating to do the state’s bidding.”

The McCleary lawsuit might not be settled anytime soon, though. On July 11, the court issued a supplemental order seeking periodic reports on how the state is working to comply with the earlier ruling. The first report is due within 60 days and subsequent ones must be submitted at the conclusion of each legislative session through 2018.

Former SKSD superintendent Dave LaRose, who left this month for a similar position Tuesday in California’s Culver City Unified School District, said maintenance-and-operations levies will have to handle those functions for now.

“We need to realize that core is becoming more and more basic education,” he said.

School board member Chris Lemke said they could consider a shorter levy, such as two years, in hopes that the district receives favorable news in the McCleary case. He also expressed concern about placing too much burden on taxpayers.

“We don’t want to put such a burden on taxpayers that they can’t pay it,” he said. “We’re looking at all those things again without the optimism of a fast recovery. It’s going to make our jobs really difficult.”