All seven school districts in Whatcom County ask voters to approve four-year levies
All seven school districts in Whatcom County are asking voters to approve four-year levies officials say are critical to their efforts to educate children and pay for technology.
Ballots have been mailed for the Feb. 11 special election. The levies would raise tens of millions of dollars from local property taxes.
They need a simple majority to pass.
If approved by voters, as they usually are in Whatcom County, the levies would help bridge the gap between what the state provides for education and what it actually costs, according to school officials.
Most of the measures ask voters to renew operations or technology levies that expire in 2020.
Operations levies pay for things such as teaching, transportation, school supplies and athletics, music and theater, among other needs.
Lynden and Meridian school districts also are asking their voters to approve new technology levies.
School districts in Whatcom County have been busy educating voters about their requests, telling them that:
▪ Most of the levies wouldn’t be new taxes, so much as replacements of previous voter-approved levies that are ending.
▪ A levy isn’t the same thing as a bond. Levies help pay for learning and bonds pay for buildings, school officials like to say.
▪ While the state did agree to put more money into education as mandated by the McCleary decision, local levies are still needed.
McCleary was a 2012 Washington State Supreme Court ruling that the state was failing in its constitutional duty to fully fund K-12 education.
To meet that mandate, the Legislature increased state property taxes and capped what school districts could ask for in local levies as part of what has been called the “McCleary fix.”
The first cap was at $1.50 per $1,000 in assessed property value. But school districts in Washington state said that put their budgets in the red.
In response, the Legislature lifted that levy cap to $2.50 per $1,000 in assessed value. Not all were pleased.
Regardless, Whatcom County school leaders say that local dollars are still needed.
“Due to the nature of state funding and the different interpretations people have regarding fully funding basic education, I think it is more challenging to get the message out that schools still need local levies to support the programs and services for kids that are essential for learning, in addition to things such as athletics, activities and enrichments that are fully a local cost,” Lynden School District Superintendent Jim Frey stated to The Bellingham Herald in an email interview.
Here’s an overview of each school district’s levy request and the impact on property taxes, using the baseline of $375,000 for a home in Whatcom County.
If approved, the levies would last from 2021 through 2024.
Bellingham
Bellingham Public Schools voters have two levies going before them. Both would last for four years and replace ones that end in 2020.
Combined, the levies make up about 25% of the school district’s budget.
“These replacement levies are critical to maintaining our current services and supporting our continuous improvement,” Dana Smith, school district spokeswoman, told The Bellingham Herald.
To help explain the need for these local dollars, the school district likes to point to school nurses.
“The McCleary fix focused on defining our state’s prototypical school model, and then allocating funds based on that model. However, for our community, we know that model is not adequate,” Smith stated.
For example, Smith said that people believe that the district has about 22 school nurses because it has 22 schools.
However, state funding allocates money for about 1.8 nurses total.
“So, we use our local levy to fund another 6.2 nurses, which brings us to eight across our 22 sites, which is better, but still not enough to match what our community believes in and values,” Smith stated.
Operations levy
Raise: About $31 million in its first year up to $35 million in 2024.
Rate: $1.85 per $1,000 of a home’s assessed value next year up to $1.91 in 2024.
Property tax bill: $693.75 in 2021 for a home assessed at $375,000.
Technology capital levy
If approved, this levy would pay for things that include computers and software, adaptive technology and devices for children with special needs, and portables and replacement windows in some schools.
Raise: $16.7 million next year to $16 million when it ends in 2024.
Rate: $1 per $1,000 of a home’s assessed value next year down to 87 cents in 2024.
Property tax bill: $375 in 2021 for a home assessed at $375,000.
Blaine
The operations levy for Blaine School District would bring in an estimated $6 million in 2021 to a little over $7.2 million in 2024. If approved, it would replace the one ending this year.
The current levy pays for about 15% of operating costs.
The estimated tax rate for the levy going before voters would be $1.26 per $1,000 of a home’s assessed value starting next year up to $1.30 in 2024.
That means a person with a home assessed at $375,000 would pay about $472.50 starting next year.
“We appreciate their long history of support in approving levies to meet the needs of our students,” Superintendent Christopher Granger said. “Even with the McCleary decision, there are still needs that go above the state funding level.”
Ferndale
The school district is asking voters to replace the operations levy ending this year.
If approved, the new one would bring in about $15.3 million a year through 2024, making up roughly 13% of the district’s budget.
The estimated tax rate would be $2.50 per $1,000 of a home’s assessed value for all four years.
That means a person with a home assessed at $375,000 would pay about $937.50 annually starting next year.
“School funding has always been complicated and McCleary has done nothing to improve that. In fact, most of the rules surrounding levies changed as a result,” Ferndale School District Superintendent Linda Quinn stated in an email interview with The Herald.
“One thing that did not change is that school districts continue to rely on local levies to provide the programs and activities that our community expects,” Quinn said.
Lynden
Two measures are going before voters in the Lynden School District.
The first is a request to renew an operations levy.
The second is for a new technology levy.
Operations levy
This levy would replace one that ends in 2020. It would represent about 12% of the district’s total budget.
Raise: About $6.7 million in its first year up to $8 million in 2024.
Rate: $2.37 per $1,000 of a home’s assessed value next year up to $2.50 in 2024.
Property tax bill: $888.75 in 2021 for a home assessed at $375,000.
Facilities and technology levy
This is a request for a new levy, which would pay for large maintenance projects such as roofs and school safety systems. On the technology side, items it would pay for include network security and wireless access, training for staff and classroom instruction.
“We have managed to get by with existing funds but have not been able to keep up with the items on this list,” Superintendent Jim Frey told The Herald. “In order to provide a technology-rich learning environment, we need additional funds aimed specifically on these items.”
Raise: $750,000 in its first year up to $800,000 in 2024.
Rate: 27 cents per $1,000 of a home’s assessed value next year down to 25 cents in 2024.
Property tax bill: $101.25 in 2021 for a home assessed at $375,000.
Meridian
This school district is asking voters to approve two levies. Both would last four years.
The combined levies would make up 13% of the school district’s budget, according to Superintendent James Everett.
Operations levy
If approved, this levy would replace one that ends in 2020.
Raise: About $4 million in its first year up to $4.7 million in 2024.
Rate: $2.50 per $1,000 of a home’s assessed value for all four years.
Property tax bill: $937.50 a year starting in 2021 for a home assessed at $375,000.
Technology and capital projects levy
This is a request for a new levy, according to Everett.
The sample ballot and voters’ pamphlet posted on the Whatcom County Auditor’s website state — incorrectly due a Meridian district error — the technology levy request is for one that’s expiring.
If approved, the funding would help pay for updating technology, training, curriculum, school safety measures, a 1:1 learning initiative, technical support and education of digital citizenship, according to Everett.
The goal of the 1:1 initiative is to expand students’ access to technology by providing computers that students in grades 6 to 12 can take home as well as a device that two students in elementary schools can share while at school.
Raise: About $644,403 in 2021 to $767,494 in its last year.
Rate: 40 cents per $1,000 of a home’s assessed value for all four years.
Property tax bill: $150 a year in 2021 for a home assessed at $375,000.
“Meridian School District has a long tradition of being great stewards of public funds. The McCleary fix impacted districts differently and did not eliminate the need for local support,” Everett wrote to The Herald in an email.
Mount Baker
The operations levy for Mount Baker School District would bring in an estimated $5 million in 2021 to a little over $5.3 million in 2024.
The estimated tax rate would be $2.50 per $1,000 of a home’s assessed value for all four years, if voters approve the levy.
That means a person with a home assessed at $375,000 would pay about $937.50 starting next year.
“The levy makes up 17% of our budget. Not passing the levy would be devastating to our programs as we would have to make deep cuts district-wide,” Superintendent Mary Sewright said.
Nooksack Valley
In the Nooksack Valley School District, the operations levy going before voters would raise $2.5 million next year to $3.1 million in 2024.
The estimated rate would start at $2.14 per $1,000 of a home’s assessed value in 2021 and continue up to its cap of $2.50 in 2024.
The owner of a home assessed at $375,000 would pay about $802.50 in 2021.
“Our voters understand the McCleary funding changes positively affected our tax rates, and they understand that local funding would still be necessary to maintain our educational program,” Superintendent Mark Johnson wrote to The Herald in an email.
In 2016, before the McCleary fix, for example, the school district asked its voters to approve a levy at a rate of $4.40 per $1,000 of assessed value.
Return your ballot
Ballots for next month’s special election have been mailed.
All school districts in Whatcom County and Fire Protection District 8 are asking voters to approve levies in the special election.
Feb. 11 is the deadline to return ballots, which must be postmarked by that date or deposited in an official ballot drop box by 8 p.m. that day.
Find a list of drop box locations at whatcomcounty.us/auditor by clicking on “Voters,” or check the voters’ pamphlet enclosed with the ballot.
EDITOR’S NOTE: How the Meridian ballot error was made was added to this story at 9:30 a.m. Jan. 30, 2020.
This story was originally published January 29, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
