School officials in most South Sound districts breathed a sigh of relief Tuesday night as the majority of their funding measures appeared to be passing in early election returns.
At stake for many districts was an estimated 20 percent of their operating budgets. In Tacoma and in Lakewood’s Clover Park School District, voters were asked to approve separate ballot measures to fund new and renovated schools.
School districts including Franklin Pierce, Fife and Federal Way also asked for money to purchase computers and other types of technology.
The largest victory margin in early returns belonged to Puyallup’s operations levy.
“Our hard work paid off in terms of educating the public,” said Puyallup Superintendent Tony Apostle. “It shows how critical the need is for local funding due to shortfalls from the state.”
The Tacoma levy to spend $140 million on new schools and technology was doing well in early returns, while the $92 million Clover Park bond measure was also in the passing column late Tuesday, having gained some ground from earlier returns.
“I feel excited because of the fact that we are moving in the right direction,” said Clover Park School Board President Marty Schafer.
Because the Lakewood district sought approval to sell bonds, it needs a 60 percent supermajority to pass. Levies require only a 50 percent plus one vote simple majority.
In early returns, most operations levies appeared to be passing. But Federal Way’s technology levy was narrowly failing.
Elections workers in both Pierce and King counties will release updated vote totals this evening.
Tacoma Superintendent Art Jarvis attributed part of the positive vote to levy supporters’ ability to keep the focus on kids.
“We’ve had honest conversations about things that need to be fixed,” he said, pointing to issues such as the achievement gap between white students and minority students.
“I think people feel we are working on it,” Jarvis said. “I don’t think anybody is ready to declare victory.”
Willie Stewart, a former Tacoma School Board member who served as co-chairman of the levy campaign, said it’s now up to the district to “live up to what we pledged to people: quality education, health and safety in our schools, lovely new structures at Hunt and Baker (middle schools) and a lot of work at Washington-Hoyt” elementary school.
Tuesday’s Tacoma capital levy was a scaled-down version of a bond measure that failed nearly a year ago. That measure had sought $300 million in bonds for new schools.
In the Bethel School District, where recently elected board member Ronald Morehouse had actively opposed the levy, Superintendent Tom Seigel said the negative campaign “energized a lot of people.”
Seigel said local levies may also have gotten a boost from last week’s King County court ruling, which declared state funding formulas for public schools unconstitutional. The court said the state should pick up more of the cost of basic education.
That case, Seigel said, “helped confirm to many people what we have been saying all along: The state has not been living up to its obligation, and local voters are deciding the fate of the school district through the levy.”
In a small handful of nonschool elections, early returns showed voters looking favorably on a merger between Fire District 8 in Edgewood and East Pierce Fire & Rescue. Voters in Fire District 10 in Fife were approving a levy to pay for emergency medical services.
A library tax request from the King County Rural Library District was too close to call.
Most of the elections were entirely vote-by-mail, so Tuesday night results could hold in all but the tightest contests. But polling places were open until 8 p.m. in Tacoma, Lakewood, University Place and several other Pierce County communities.
Levy supporters had plenty to worry about this winter. With many people staggering under the weight of unemployment, stagnating wages and rising health care costs, school officials and levy campaigners fretted that voters would be in no mood to approve property taxes. Opponents argued that school districts need to learn to make do with fewer tax dollars.
But in the end, the sentiments of folks such as Puyallup School Board member Greg Heath seemed to carry the day.
“A lot of people feel that, given this economy, our best hope is to educate our kids,” Heath said.
Debbie Cafazzo: 253-597-8635
debbie.cafazzo@thenewstribune.com
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