Omaha metro school district leaders have questions on Pillen's property tax plan

OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Leaders within Omaha Public Schools and Papillion La Vista Community Schools are awaiting the special session to get answers on things like local control and sustainability of the governor's plan.

• OPS Board President Spencer Head says while Pillen's plan sounds great, there's still a lot of questions for the state's largest district.
• Last week, Superintendent of Papillion La Vista Community Schools, Dr. Andrew Rikli was one of a handful of superintendents who met with the governor to talk about the proposal.
• "Our hope is that the legislature looks at this from a variety of perspectives. They take their time, they listen to their school boards, they listen to their school leaders,” said Dr. Rikli.

BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:

The way Nebraska schools are funded could be drastically changing. We’re speaking with Omaha metro districts to hear the impacts Governor Pillen’s property tax plan would have on them.

"I'm a little bit skeptical."

OPS Board President Spencer Head says while Pillen's plan sounds great, there's still a lot of questions for the state's largest district.

Head says ops receives a little less than one third of all the state aid sent to districts.

"72% roughly of our constituents are at or below the poverty line. And so, if we're talking about introducing new sales taxes, you know, we have to take that into consideration too is how is that going to impact our constituents and our community."

And OPS isn't the only district with questions.

Last week, Superintendent of Papillion La Vista Community Schools, Dr. Andrew Rikli was one of a handful of superintendents who met with the governor to talk about the proposal.

"I think our biggest concern really is about we want to make sure whatever funding mechanism in place it's stable and sustainable and that local control of our school districts remain strong,” said Dr. Rikli.

Bennington Public Schools also got back to me with a response saying: "BPS is committed to collaborating with lawmakers to find solutions that reduce property taxes without compromising the high-quality education our community expects"

Westside Community Schools says: “Westside Community Schools is committed to providing an environment that fosters excellence in education for all students and staff while remaining cognizant of the reliance on our community’s property tax dollars."

With the special session slated to start Thursday school leaders are awaiting more answers.

"Our hope is that the legislature looks at this from a variety of perspectives. They take their time, they listen to their school boards, they listen to their school leaders,” said Dr. Rikli.

"We'll make do with what, you know, what we're given. But my hope is that the senators actually take time to, you know, step back and look at what they're actually doing and what the real impacts are.” said Head.