School Ballots

For public libraries seeking school ballot funding, there's some gray area around whether a petition with signatures of eligible school district voters needs to be submitted to the school. Is the petition actually needed and if so, what laws and policies define this process?

When I started writing “Ask the Lawyer” in 2016, my daughter was two years old.

I would like to be able to answer this question like a two-year-old Molly and say simply (and loudly): “NO!” (you don't need a petition).

We are an association Library that uses a school ballot to levy funding. We have received a bill from the school for 2 years now that a landowner has had their taxes re-accessed back 3 years and now we owe the school money. Last year we paid it because it seemed like bad luck and there weas court documents saying the back money was owed.

Imagine walking through a metal maze, wearing magnet shoes, trying to solve a Rubik's Cube coated in honey.

Visualizing that? Metal floor.  Magnet shoes.  Lots of honey.

Okay.

This…is an even stickier problem.

Why is it sticky?  Because for any library but a school district library, there is no definitive answer.