The Austin Public Schools Board approved the 2015 maximum levy at a 5.5 percent increase at Monday’s meeting in the District Office Conference Room.

The levy, which is up from 2013 and 2014 but below 2012, will increase by $361,675.

Finance and Operations Director Mark Stotts said the main increase is in health and safety.

“Some of those things are kind of beyond our control,” Stotts said. “It just so happened that next year we have quite a few projects we have to complete.”

He listed projects like asbestos removal and food code inspections as projects the school is required by the state Legislature to complete.

“They’re really not projects we can avoid,” he said. “Other than that everything stayed pretty similar to last year.”

Austin Public Schools’ growth in students also accounts for some of the increase, according to Stotts.

The 2013-2014 payable levy is about $6.5 million, while the 2014-2015 payable levy currently is about $6.9 million. This is still under the roughly $7 million of the 2012-2013 payable levy.

“We’re still not up to the levy that we had in 2012,” Stotts said. “The last two years we had decreases in the levy. This just happens to be a year that it’s going to increase a little bit.”

The levy will be fine-tuned over the next few months, and the board will make a final decision to approve it by its 6 p.m. Dec. 8 truth in taxation meeting, which will be held in the council chambers at city hall, 500 Fourth Avenue Northeast.

“This is going to change by December; it could go down,” Stotts said. “Pretty standard, we do it every year.”