The Portland school board will likely ask voters in November to extend a property tax that pays for about 800 teachers, according to district documents.

The local option tax, most recently approved by voters in 2014, will provide approximately 14% of the district’s general fund in the current fiscal year, or more than $96 million.

The school board would ask voters to maintain the levy’s current rate of $1.99 per $1,000 of assessed property value. The district will likely ask voters to allow the money to be used for programmatic funding as well as teaching positions.

That would cost the owner of a typical home in the district, with an assessed value of about $215,000, about $430 per year.

The cash collected from the property tax goes directly into the general fund, which for the current year totals $694 million.

“For our general fund, we don’t distinguish what is funded by the levy and what is funded otherwise,” Board Chair Amy Kohnstamm said.

During a hearing at Franklin High School Tuesday evening, Chief Operating Officer Claire Hertz told the school board that proceeds from the local option levy provide for about one-third of the district’s teaching positions.

Chief of Staff Stephanie Soden said the operating levy, if approved, would generate more than $114 million by the 2024-25 academic year.

A handful of community members turned out to Tuesday’s meeting, urging the board to get the levy extension on the ballot.

District parent Jessica Colby said she was dismayed by the staffing cuts included in Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero’s most recent budget proposal and told the board she feared what a non-renewal of the tax levy would mean for the district’s teaching corps.

“Losing any positions would be difficult. Losing 800 would be catastrophic,” she said.

Lincoln High School Principal Peyton Chapman said the district needs to improve teacher retention and that a loss of funding would exacerbate the problem. She admitted to swiping an educator from a neighboring district that failed to pass its own property tax levy in 2011, and said that teacher went on to pioneer Lincoln High’s physics program. She did not name the district, but locally, Oregon City suffered a big loss at the ballot that year.

“We need to keep (those teachers) and often those are some of the most diverse teachers we have recruited to come to our school or come to our state,” Chapman said.

Suzanne Cohen, president of the teachers’ union, said class sizes and caseloads consistently rank among the top concerns of educators she speaks with. She also voiced her gratitude to Portland voters for consistently approving education funding over the years.

“But despite this support, this does not mean we have optimal class sizes — far from it,” she said.

Cohen said the district could use more educators, but she did not push for the school board to raise the tax rate. It was a pair of members from the district’s community budget review committee who asked the board to raise the levy rate to $2.25 per $1,000.

“This marginal rate increase will greatly benefit all students across the district,” committee member Irina Philips said.

Although every speaker at the Franklin High hearing advocated for the levy renewal, former Grant High Parent Teacher Association President Scott Overton warned the board against expanding the scope of what levy funds would pay for or increasing the rate.

“I don’t know that Portland Public Schools has gained the trust for having more discretion in how they spend the money, so I warn you against more broad use of the money,” Overton said.

The district and school board have come under fire since voters approved a $790 million bond to renovate three high schools and a middle school in 2017.

Last August, officials concluded that construction costs were set to outpace the approved funding by $100 million. And earlier this year, auditors hired by the school board found that total costs could eclipse $1 billion.

The district must now ask voters to approve another round of bonds in 2020 to address those cost overruns. Board Vice Chair Julia Brim-Edwards defended the decision to broaden the property tax levy’s scope to include programs in addition to teaching positions.

She noted that 58% of district third-graders fell short of state reading benchmarks. And that black students in Portland schools fared worse, with only 19% meeting standards.

“We potentially want to be able to focus resources and funding on students that haven’t been well-served,” Brim-Edwards said.

If the levy is to appear on the November ballot, the school board must submit the ballot title to Multnomah County by Aug. 16 and must submit the measure’s final language on Sept. 5.

Note: This story was updated at 3:30 p.m. Aug. 7 to reflect the typical assessed value and tax bill for a home in the Portland school district.