With school sports and more on the line, Finley voters flock to return ballots
Nearly 1,000 Finley voters returned their ballots by Monday in the lead up to a crucial school district election that will decide the future of sports and other programs.
Finley School District is asking voters in the Tuesday, April 22, special election to pass a two-year, $3.45 million operations levy to fund teacher salaries, school safety, instructional materials, special education, the arts, athletics and building maintenance.
Already about 31% of the 3,100 registered voters who live in the district had returned their ballots by Monday.
Those returns are slightly ahead of the special election in February, when just 960 voters returned ballots.
At that time, Finley voters shot down a two-year, $4.5 million replacement levy. The difference was about 60 votes — 446 voted in favor and 507 voted opposed it.
It’s the district’s final shot to secure replacement funding before its current levy expires at the end of the year. Washington public school districts can only make two attempts in a year to secure local operations money.
If it fails, the district will need to identify $2 million in budget cuts for the 2025-26 school year.
That’s likely to include cutting all athletics programs, modifying its student calendar to a four-day week and slashing nearly two dozen teaching and staff positions.
Voters have until 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 22, to return their ballots to a Benton County certified drop box. One is located at Finley Middle School, at 37208 S. Finley Road.
If voters need a new ballot, to update their registration or to register to vote for the first time, they can do that in-person up until 8 p.m. at the Benton County Voting Center, located at 7122 West Okanogan Place, Building F.
This story was originally published April 22, 2025 at 12:54 PM.
