Wahluke School District regroups, won’t resubmit levy

MATTAWA — Wahluke School District officials will not resubmit a capital levy proposal to district voters. Instead, the district will use a mix of its own money and funding it received from the federal government in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak to pay for some of the district’s projects.

Wahluke Superintendent Andy Harlow said district officials want to concentrate on rebuilding the relationship between the district and the community. District officials also want to work on the upcoming educational programs and operations levy, which will go to voters sometime in 2022.

The capital levy proposal in February failed to garner enough “yes” votes in the district. The levy would have generated $1.5 million per year for three years for the school district.

But, Harlow said, the district received about $1.6 million through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) fund. That money will be used to pay for a new heating and cooling system at Saddle Mountain Elementary. The ESSER funding also allowed the district to buy two portable classrooms, he said.

“That was a huge chunk of (the projects at) one of the buildings,” Harlow said. “We really, really got lucky.”

The levy would have paid to replace the roofs at Saddle Mountain and Mattawa elementaries. Both roofs still must be replaced, and Harlow said the district will have to use money from its general fund.

He estimated replacing the Mattawa Elementary roof would cost about $300,000, and the roof at Saddle Mountain Elementary would cost about $450,000. One roof will be replaced this summer, the second next summer.

A few other projects were included in the levy, and district officials are still figuring out how to pay for those.

The ESSER money “doesn’t solve all of our issues,” Harlow said.

Additional projects in the levy proposal included security upgrades at all district schools, new gym scoreboards at the two elementary schools and Wahluke Junior High, and irrigation system upgrades throughout the district. The levy also included money for modernizing fire alarms at WJH and Mattawa Elementary, new hallway carpet at Saddle Mountain and resurfacing the Wahluke High School parking lot.

As part of their effort to address the other projects, and to help rebuild the relationship with the community, Harlow said district officials are working on some long-term planning for one, three and five years. The results will be shared with district patrons.

“We feel the levy showed us we (district officials) have a lot of work to do,” he said.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.