The DeKalb School District 428 Board approved a property tax levy for 2025 this week, accounting for an increase to health insurance premiums, loss of transportation reimbursement payments from the state and other costs expected in the new year.

Residents won’t know how much they owe the district in property taxes until the spring.

But if the district’s calculation is any indication, board documents show that the average area homeowner could owe about $350 more to DeKalb schools. This figure could fluctuate based on property tax appeals, officials said.

At a public meeting this week, the school board voted 6-1 to adopt an $85.3 million tax levy. The lone dissenting vote was cast by board member Mark Charvat.

For tax year 2025, the district is working under the assumption that the consumer price index is 2.9%. District officials also expect $272.7 million in total new construction and about $2 million in total equalized assessed valuation.

Officials have said they anticipate the tax rate remaining flat over the prior year, meaning the rate won’t change compared with last year, but the money owed could.

Board Vice President Jose Jaques said he has come around to the idea of supporting district staff’s recommendation.

“I’ve made up my mind a little bit better,” Jaques said. “My dream would be option two, but I also understand where we’re at.”

Jaques and Charvat had been the only holdouts on the school board in November, expressing reservations about the district’s proposed tax levy. The board reached a consensus at the time to support the third tax levy scenario, which came with district staff’s recommendation.

Charvat suggested that the board consider the second tax levy scenario instead of option three.

The board was presented in November with four options to choose from. Only one of the scenarios came with district staff’s recommendation. Staff said the other levy proposals would have resulted in lost revenue.

Public school districts generally account for the largest portion of property taxes on a person’s bill.

If the DeKalb Meta data center build is any indication, officials said, the district can expect another $20 million from a second data center, the latter of which received the City Council’s backing last week.

Charvat said he believes that taxpayers should have some relief.

“The city actually approved a data center, which is going to bring in $20 million approximately, if you use the comparatives to what Meta’s bringing in right now,” Charvat said. “We’re going to be sitting on a lot more money. So, I would like to do something a little bit better for the taxpayer.”

In response, Superintendent Minerva Garcia-Sanchez said Edged data center, by Endeavour Energy, won’t be built for some time.

“I heard the data center, but it’s going to take us a few years before we get that kind of money,” Garcia-Sanchez said.

Garcia-Sanchez said the district wants to be strategic about easing the burden on taxpayers.

“I think it’s very important for all of us to remember that, No. 1, we are reducing to a level at which would leave us with a very small margin to be able to afford things [on which], currently, tariffs and costs are rising,” Garcia-Sanchez said.

Officials have said they won’t have a clearer picture of how much money the district can expect to levy until March or April, at which point the county assessor will have finalized the assessment base.

Board member Nick Atwood acknowledged Charvat’s point about wanting to extend property tax relief, but he said the district stands to lose more money now than it would later.

“Right now, we don’t know enough about what it’s going to look like in three months because we had operational costs go up with the health insurance,” Atwood said. “We got a major salary dump to the collective bargaining units happening. ... In March, we’ll have a clearer picture of what those things look like. I think it’s important that we hold where we’re at now, but I think we look strongly at what we might be able to do then.”

The district has a chance to consider revising its tax levy in the spring.

In the meantime, the district is required to submit a copy of its tax levy certificate to the county clerk by the last Tuesday in December, school board documents show.