The South Whidbey School District will ask voters to renew its current educational maintenance and operations levy on the Feb. 9 ballot.

The property tax pays for a quarter of the district’s budget. The levy rate is estimated to remain at a steady rate of $1.05 per $1,000 of assessed value. If the levy passes, a person with a home valued at $300,000 home would pay $315 per year.

The measure proposes a three-year levy and would be collected through 2019. It will total $4.15 million starting in 2017. The levy amount will increase by $75,000 in 2018, and again in 2019, based on estimated property value increases.

Ninety percent of the district’s $16 million budget goes toward teacher salaries, said superintendent Jo Moccia.

“The most important thing people need to do is vote,” Moccia said. “We need to have enough people vote for the vote to count.”

The levy would pay for other needs in the district such as the reduction of class sizes; teaching materials and supplies; curriculum and staff development; advanced placement classes; programs for struggling students; breakfast and lunch programs; utilities; facility maintenance, and extra curricular activities. Because state and federal dollars do not fully fund the day-to-day operations of the district, it must rely on local taxpayers through the maintenance and operation levy. The current levy will expire in December 2016. Information regarding the levy will be sent to homes in the district via mail next week as part of the district’s annual report.