By Pat Jenkins
The Dispatch
Voters in the Eatonville School District are being asked to approve two levies next month – one lasting two years and the other to be in effect for six years.
The special-election ballot in February will have:
• An educational programs and operations levy that calls for property tax collections of $7.5 million over two years (2018-20) at a rate of $2.51 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. It would replace a current levy that expires at the end of this year.
• A capital levy that would tax property owners at a rate of 25 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation during the tax collection years of 2019 to 2024.
The School Board unanimously approved sending both ballot measures to voters after concluding that the proposals, if passed in the election that begins in abouit three weeks and ends Feb. 13, would help the district maintain existing programs and student services.
The educational programs and operations levy would provide funding for teaching, school supplies, technology, athletics, buildings and transportation.
The capital levy would cover building maintenance, improvements, expansion and renovation, plus technology infrastructure and student security systems.
None of the levy money would be used to build new schools, district officials said.
If both levies pass, property owners would be taxed a total of $2.76 per $1,000 of assessed valuation each year but would have smaller tax bills for schools than they do now. For instance, a homeowner with a house assessed at $260,000 would pay $717.60 a year (not counting any change in the home’s assessed valuation) once the measures took effect. Currently, the owner of such a home pays $3.56 cents per $1,000 ($925 annually). That’s a “savings” of $208 per year in local school levy collections for the Eatonville district, officials said.
If voters reject the levies, changes or cuts in services districtwide would be decided by the School Board.
In a statement accompanying information about the levies, district superintendent Krestin Bahr said local levy money enables Eatonville schools “to maintain funding for programs beyond what the state provides. This includes teachers so that lower class sizes can be sustained, instructional assistants who work one-on-one or in small groups with students and provide supervision on the playground,” bus transportation of students to and from school, “including bus routes in areas where it is unsafe to walk,” gifted-student and advanced placement curriculum, special education, remediation and English as a Second Language programs, books and other learning materials, software and technology for use by students in school, “training for teachers to keep their skills and knowledge updated, time for teachers to prepare quality classroom lessons, coaching and supervision for extracurricular activities” (sports and music, “and heat and lights for classrooms.”
Money raised by the capital levy, Bahr said, “will ensure our facilities remain safe and equitable. This will allow for dedicated funds to maintain our roofs, septic systems, heating and mechanical systems, and other technical infrastructure so that such expenses” aren’t paid for with other funds.
Bahr said requests for public funding aren’t made “lightly,” and the school district wouldn’t be asking “if it were not critical to sustaining operations and providing a high-quality education for our students.”
Public trust in the district’s “stewardship of public dollars is paramount. You have our commitment to do what’s best for students and our community regarding these important levy funds,” she said.
The proposed Eatonville levies that were authorized by the School Board in a unanimous decision Nov. 8 are for a levy collection at a higher limit instead of the lower, maximum amount set by the Legislature that will take effect statewide in 2019. That way, if the Legislature changes the tax law, the district wouldn’t have to ask voters for a supplemental levy, officials said.
The Pierce County auditor is scheduled to mail ballots to registered voters on Jan. 24. Voters will have until Feb. 13 to make their choices and mail the ballots back or deposit them in official dropboxes.
The levies can pass or fail with a simple majority of votes (anything over 50 percent).
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