School district levies to be on February ballot

MOSES LAKE — Voters in several local school districts will be asked to approve or reject requests for educational program and operations levies in a special election Feb. 13.

Voters in the Moses Lake, Royal, Warden and Soap Lake school districts will be considering levy requests. In all cases, they are renewals of existing levies. District voters will receive ballots by the end of January.

Moses Lake district patrons will be considering a two-year request. If approved, the levy rate would be $2 per $1,000 of assessed property value. If the levy is approved, a landowner in the district with property valued at $300,000 would pay $600 per year. 

Royal School District voters also will be asked to approve a two-year levy, about $1.82 million each year. The levy rate is projected at $1.72 per $1,000 of assessed property value in 2025, the first year, and $1.67 per $1,000 in 2026. A property owner with property valued at $300,000 would pay $525 in 2025.

That’s an increase from the existing levy, and Royal Superintendent Roger Trail said it’s necessary to make sure the district qualifies for local effort assistance funds.

“Any time a school district’s levy rate falls below the $1.50 (per $1,000 of assessed value) minimum requirement, the district is no longer eligible to receive ‘state match dollars,’” Trail wrote on the district’s website.

Royal’s levy rate fell below the minimum in 2023 and is projected to stay below it in 2024.

Warden district patrons will decide the fate of two separate levy requests, an EP&O levy and a separate technology levy.

The educational programs levy is a two-year request for about $1.71 million in the first year and $1.88 million in the second year. Property owners would pay an estimated $2.20 per $1,000 if assessed property value in the first year and $2.30 per $1,000 in the second year.

The technology levy would raise about $155,400 in the first year and an estimated $163,170 in the second year. Property owners would pay 20 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value. The technology levy helps pay for upgrades to the district’s technology systems. 

Soap Lake voters will consider a four-year levy, which would generate about $736,100 in 2025, about $776,100 in 2026, about $818,300 in 2027 and about $862,900 in 2028.

The levy rate will be unchanged from the existing levy, $2.29 per $1,000 of assessed property value. The owner of a property worth $200,000 would pay $458 in taxes. 

Most local districts qualify for levy equalization money, known as local effort assistance, from the state if the levy is passed. Levy equalization is provided to districts with relatively lower property values. But the district must pass an EP&O levy to qualify for levy equalization. 

All districts use levy — and levy equalization — money to plug gaps in state and federal funding for educational programs. Some programs, like extracurricular activities, get no state support at all, and must be completely funded locally. 

Levy money helps pay to enhance programs like music and art, extra staff like counselors; some schools use the money to ensure each student has a personal computer. Levy money pays for school resource officers in Royal, to ensure smaller class sizes in Soap Lake and for additional tech support in Moses Lake, among other programs.

Because it’s a school educational programs levy, each proposal requires a bare majority, 50% plus one vote, to pass. 

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

    Warden School Board members and district superintendent Scott West, far right, listen to a presentation on the educational programs and operations levy in October. Warden is one of the school districts with an EP&O levy on the February ballot.
  

    Soap Lake volleyball players Olivia McCrady (2) and Mylee Dana (1) go up for the block during a game at the 2023 1B state volleyball championship. Most extracurricular activities, including sports, are funded out of local educational programs and operations levies.