Here’s what Kennewick, Prosser and Finley schools decided about their failed levies
Following on the heels of the district’s first failed levy in more than three decades, Kennewick School District voted this week to try again. This time, the request is less ambitious.
The school board unanimously decided to ask voters to approve a two-year operations levy at a meeting Wednesday night. The measure will be on the ballot April 26.
A 4-year levy request failed earlier this month with 51% opposed.
The Washington statewide deadline for an April special election was Friday, Feb. 25.
The Kennewick district’s current operations levy expires at the end of this year, and this new measure would replace the existing one.
Operations levies help public school districts fund the gap between what’s needed and what the state pays for.
For Kennewick, that includes nurses, counselors, instructional support positions and even athletics. Levies are different from bonds, which help pay for capital projects, like new schools.
The districts serves more than 18,700 students, and is the city’s largest employer with about 3,000 employees.
If passed, Kennewick’s new levy would raise $20.6 million next year and $23.4 million in 2024.
Property owners would pay $1.75 per $1,000 of assessed value in 2023 and $1.85 per $1,000 of assessed value in 2024. They currently are paying $1.65 per $1,000.
For a home valued at $300,000, the tax bill would be about $525 next year and $555 in 2024.
The proposed levy rate for 2024 is slightly less than the $1.90 originally requested on this month’s ballot. School officials previously said they were able to keep the rate lower the next two years because of federal COVID relief money they received.
Board President Michael Connors told the Herald after Wednesday night’s meeting he felt confident voters would approve the adjusted measure.
“The history of Kennewick, as they’ve shown, they’ve been passing these levies for decades. And again, there’s a lot of moving parts to this and there’s a lot of things going on in the community,” he said.
About 11% of the district’s $285 million budget is funded with levy and state equalization dollars to help districts in less affluent areas.
Voters in February did, however, pass the district’s four-year technology levy with just over 52% approval.
Survey results
Superintendent Traci Pierce shared at this week’s meeting the results from a quick family and community survey on local school funding.
“It seems to me it’s pretty much what we’ve been hearing,” Connors said. “People are very concerned about the mask mandates. They’re very concerned about the financial impact on them, specifically people with fixed incomes. That was a big consideration for us.”
Close to 56% of people who responded were parents or guardians with students in the district, while about 15% said they were community members and about 27% said they were staff.
According to results, most of the nearly 2,000 surveyed said they were concerned with the state mask mandate in schools (32%), the amount requested from taxpayers (32%) and the transparency of how the money is used (29%).
But more than 35% said they had “no concerns.”
Parents specifically highlighted the state mask mandate (41%), amount requested (35%) and transparency (32%) as issues they had with voting for the levy.
Most staff said they had “no concern” (48%), though some said they had concerns with transparency (21%) and the amount (21%).
Close to 18% of staff said the state mask mandate was an area of concern when it came to levy funding.
When asked what was most important to them, all survey takers said student learning and staffing (73%), health and safety (59%) and instructional support (56%).
Prosser schools
Seventeen of the 135 operation levies in Washington state this month failed to pass, including measures from districts in Prosser, Finley and Othello.
Now those districts are working to pick up the pieces.
In Prosser, which has nearly 2,500 students, voters turned down a three-year replacement levy that would have funded technology upgrades, athletics, student activities and staff, among other things.
Superintendent Matthew Ellis told the Herald they’ll also be putting forward a two-year levy this April. They’re proposing a levy rate of $2.13 per $1,000 of assessed value, which was the same rate proposed in February.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty and I think the hope is that within the next two years we can do kind of a deeper dive with our community about what they want the future of Prosser schools to look like,” he said.
Ellis said his district has had challenges with teaching the public about the differences between bonds and levies, as well as communicating what the funds are used for.
Most past superintendents in his community have dealt with a levy failure. A double levy failure would most certainly mean cuts to their budget and programs, he told his board this month.
“I don’t think it’s ever been a double failure,” Ellis said.
Finley schools
Finley Superintendent Lance Hahn told the Herald they also plan to run a reduced levy come April after voters turned down their two-year measure.
On Wednesday, their school board approved a proposal that would levy a reduced rate of $2.33 per $1,000 assessed in 2023 and $2.37 per assessed in 2024.
Even if the new proposal passes in April it will tighten their budgets, Hahn said, but they’ll be able to focus on academics and extra curricular activities. In his 11 years at Finley, they’ve never failed a levy.
“It’s just tough times in general for people in Benton County,” Hahn said. “It just seems like the COVID thing has hit this area harder.”
