ML school levy: It's a matter of fact

When I was in school, I had teachers who required me to back up opinions with figures. So here are some facts regarding the 2004 school levy election:

On March 9, 59.5 percent of voters voted yes on the replacement levy. For the levy to pass, a vote of 60 percent was required, which means we needed only 26 "no" voters to vote "yes." And remember, not voting is equivalent to a "no" vote.

The number of absentee ballots increased by 360 over the 2002 levy election, while the number of walk-in voters (the ones who actually turned up to vote in the flesh) decreased by 900 from the same year. So where were the voters? Was the main problem complacency, or were people thinking, "This will pass without my vote?"

Some more figures to consider:

After the levy failed in March, the school board reduced the replacement levy proposal by $75,000 in 2005, and $99,000 in 2006. If the replacement levy fails again on April 27, no levy funds will be collected in calendar year 2004, resulting in a loss of $6.8 million.

To make matters worse, the district will lose an additional $1.9 million in levy equalization funds for the 2004-05 school year. Levy equalization funds are a bonus provided by the state for "property-poor" districts that approve maintenance and operation levies. The purpose of these bonus funds is to allow school districts with less taxable property to keep up with districts in wealthier communities. Since state law allows only two chances to pass a levy in a given calendar year, April 27 will be our last chance to salvage those badly needed monies. If we don't, the district will have to make cuts somewhere.

We don't know exactly where these cuts will be made. The school board decided that they would not prepare a "cut list" prior to the April election. But we need to face the facts. We will have to lay off teachers. We will have to cut programs. As a parent with two students enrolled in the Moses Lake School District, this concerns me deeply. I asked Superintendent Steve Chestnut to list out what cuts they would make, and he demurred, saying, "The school board does not want to 'threaten' voters."

However, he did share some information that we should all think about before we vote. If the replacement levy fails the school board will be forced to cut somewhere between $5 and $5.5 million from the 2004-05 budget. The reason for this is because half of the levy would have been collected in 2004-05 ($3.4 million) plus levy equalization funds will be lost ($1.9 million). That's a big chunk of change, and the district does not have a large cash reserve to offset such a loss. As of February 29, there was a balance of $3 million, representing a reserve of 5.96 percent. The school board has stated many times that their "target" for a cash reserve is no less than 5 percent.

Since the district doesn't want to speculate on where the cuts would have to be made, I did some projections of my own, and the results weren't encouraging. Eighty percent of the school district budget is salary and benefits for the district's approximately 800 employees. Another failure at the polls would mean that probably about $4 to $4.5 million would be cut in staff reductions. This would impact every category of employee: administration, teachers, classified staff, coaches, and substitutes. Fewer teachers would result in larger class sizes. Even with small classes, they can't teach without the valuable support of the rest of the staff. If we overload them, and yank their support and materials on top of it, how can we expect them to maintain quality teaching? It's a case of blood from a stone.

We need look no further than Yakima to see what the results of a levy failure would mean. The Yakima School District is about twice the size of Moses Lake. When the Yakima School District experienced a double levy failure in 1998, a total of 177 staff positions were eliminated and almost every program was impacted. A "pay to play" fee was implemented for all athletic teams. At the high school level the fee that each participant was charged was $200 per sport. In addition, the budgets were slashed for textbook purchases, curriculum materials, maintenance, computers, vocational equipment, staff development, field trips … pretty much everything that the schools need to teach effectively.

The Moses Lake school board would be faced with making similar cuts in the 2004-05 budget if the replacement levy fails this month.

Levy funds in the Moses Lake School District are used to fund: Athletics, academic clubs, elementary PE teachers, elementary music teachers, elementary counselors, NOVA teachers, nurses, one security officer, maintenance, special education, textbooks, student computers, library books, buses, the community schools office, vocational equipment and music equipment, as well as a whole raft of other necessities, too many to list.

Ask yourself which of these things you would want to see denied to our kids, and I guarantee you won't like the answer. The bottom line is that if the replacement levy were to fail, it would be devastating to our district and it would take years to recover.

We've got some great schools here, folks. I'm proud to have my kids in Moses Lake schools. I'm optimistic that we can pass the replacement levy this time around. In 2000, we were faced with a similar situation, and we rose to the challenge. The vote in favor of the levy went from 55 percent in February to 65 percent in April. In 2002, the replacement levy passed with a 68 percent "yes" vote.

You may not have any school-aged children, but even so, it's necessary to look to the long term. The voters in this community stepped up to the plate when you and your kids were in the system, and will continue to when another generation gets ready to begin learning. A strong school system attracts businesses and jobs to our community, and so benefits everybody.

Our school district has a long history of community support. Only once has a levy failed twice in the last 30 years. Please join me in voting yes for schools on April 27. Don't be one of the few missing votes that causes it to fail.

Harlan J. Beagley is the publisher of the Columbia Basin Herald.