Seven Pierce County school districts are hoping voters show them some love in a Valentine’s Day election that includes property tax measures to sustain school operations. One district, Franklin Pierce, is asking voters for help to upgrade outdated schools.
School funding moved to the front burner earlier this month after the state Supreme Court ruled Washington was failing its constitutional duty to fully fund public education.
But the court’s ruling won’t provide immediate relief to school budgets that depend on local levy dollars. The court left it up to the Legislature to act by 2018.
Until then, districts will continue to turn to voters for help.
“I think that our community understands that our levy is 22 percent of our day-to-day operations,” said Peninsula Schools Superintendent Terry Bouck.
However, with Pierce County unemployment weighing in last month at 9.1 percent, it may be a tough sales job for some.
Election Day is Feb. 14. Ballots will be mailed to voters Friday. They must be postmarked by Feb. 14 to be counted.
Not all local districts have money measures on this ballot. The three largest – Tacoma, Puyallup and Bethel – do not.
Districts can choose to run levies to collect revenues for up to four years, but some choose to go to voters more frequently, so election cycles vary.
Here are some highlights of what’s on the ballot.
FRANKLIN PIERCE
At Ford Middle School in Midland, built 52 years ago and last remodeled in the 1990s, more than 900 students daily use a cafeteria designed for far fewer. To accommodate everyone, students eat in three shifts, beginning at 10:45 a.m.
In the lunchroom, an estimated 300 students per shift share a single restroom stall for each gender. They get 30 minutes to navigate the lunch line, eat, use the restroom if they must, then head outside if it’s not raining too hard. Lack of restrooms are a problem throughout the school, officials say.
In the band room, there are no locks on instrument storage spaces. Students must carry their instrument all day, or risk leaving it behind and having it damaged or stolen.
Improvements at Ford and Keithley middle schools, including bigger lunchrooms, as well as at other schools around the district, would be funded with a capital levy on the February ballot. The measure would raise $5.5 million annually for five years – a total of $27.5 million – beginning in 2013.
District officials say passage would ensure a facelift for every outdated classroom in the district, and provide improvements for failing heating, mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems.
This levy is separate from the district’s basic levy that pays for day-to-day operations. That levy won’t expire until 2014.
In 2008, Franklin Pierce voters twice turned down a $78.5 million construction bond measure, which would have provided money to upgrade schools. This time, the district pared down its request and switched to a capital levy, which collects less money over a shorter period.
A capital levy is also easier to pass. It requires a simple majority, while a construction bond needs a super-majority of 60 percent to pass.
CLOVER PARK
Officials in Lakewood’s Clover Park School District – the largest district on the ballot next month – are asking for a four-year replacement operations levy that will boost rates slightly.
The levy would raise between $20 million and $21 million per year.
Business services administrator Lynn Wilson said Clover Park is betting property values will recover somewhat toward the end of the levy cycle that starts in 2013.
“We are trying to be conservative in what we’re asking for,” he said. “But our crystal ball is not any better than any other.”
PENINSULA
The Gig Harbor-based Peninsula School District is also asking for a four-year programs and operations levy, with collections to begin in 2013. The district’s most recent operations levy, approved in 2009, was for only three years and will expire this year.
The new rates are designed to raise an estimated $20 million to $23 million per year.
Deputy Superintendent Chuck Cuzzetto emphasizes that rates are “estimates into the future.”
“We don’t know what is going to happen to future assessed values,” he said. “As assessed values fall, rates go up. But the amount of tax money collected doesn’t change.”
EATONVILLE
Eatonville seeks a new programs and operations levy to replace its expiring levy. Tax money would be collected for four years, beginning in 2013. The levy would generate about $5 million each year.
The rate per thousand dollars of assessed property valuation would rise, when compared with the rate collected in 2011.
The reason for the increase, Superintendent Rich Stewart said, is that property values overall in the district have dropped. That means the district must ask voters to approve more dollars per thousand to generate what it needs for operations, he said.
Eatonville also wants voters to change the way school board members are elected, in a move designed to encourage more citizens to serve on the board.
The current School Board is made up of five members, each representing a separate area, known as a director district.
Proposition 2 would change the board makeup to include three director districts and two members who would be elected at-large from the entire school district.
Stewart said the board believes allowing at-large members would permit more participation, particularly from the population center inside the town. The district sometimes has trouble recruiting candidates for board positions. It’s currently searching for someone to replace Kirk Heinz, who is leaving after 14 years.
Debbie Cafazzo: 253-597-8635
debbie.cafazzo@thenewstribune.com
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