School districts must plan ahead if they want to add a measure to a school election ballot.

That may be why this year, many schools districts across the state are early in requesting a measure to keep their maintenance tax in effect.

In Van Buren County, the Harmony school district has its special measure on the ballot for the upcoming Sept. 8 “school election.”

“It’s to extend the present Physical Plant and Equipment Levy,” said Van Buren County Auditor Jon Finney.

It stood for 10 years, and board members want to continue it another decade.

“It hasn’t come [due] yet, but if they were to try it next year... they’d have to have a special election,” Finney said.

That’s because the state has mandated that school elections now be held every two years instead of annually.

“They have to start timing these,” Finney said of school districts in Iowa, “they have to start thinking ahead.”

In Keokuk County, Pekin also wants to continue to pay for maintenance issues using the familiar levy on property tax. Voters there must decide if Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids can continue to levy residents up to 10 years for similar issues: The purchase of grounds, construction of buildings and maintaining the college.

The measures are a little different in other local districts: Fairfield schools in Jefferson County, the Ottumwa school district in Wapello County, Oskaloosa schools in Mahaska County and the Eddyville-Blakesburg school district, which is handled by Monroe County, are not asking for more money: They are, according to their ballots, asking voters to let schools “adopt the revenue purpose statement to authorize the expenditure of revenues from the state of Iowa.”

The former one cent “local” sales tax better known as SILO has been phased out; it has been replaced by a statewide one-cent tax added onto purchases.

But Ottumwa school business manager John Donner recently said that districts must still get approval to use the money in the mandated manner. The tax, he said, is already there.

“We’d like district residents to know: This is not a new tax they are voting for,” he said.

The statewide penny tax, now sent to districts as the “Vision for Education Fund,” can only be spent for property tax relief or to fix, furnish, buy or build school property.

Mark Newman can be reached by e-mail at mgnewman@mchsi.com.