Voters rejecting Wahluke capital levy request in early results

MATTAWA — Wahluke School District voters are saying no to a proposal that would help pay the balance of a loan taken out for improvements at Mattawa Elementary School and pay for upgrades to fire and security alarm systems in four district buildings. 

“I guess it means we have to weigh staffing against these capital upgrades, and how much more can we cut?” said Wahluke Superintendent Andy Harlow. 

In preliminary and unofficial results from Tuesday’s special election, WSD voters cast 202 no votes and 147 yes votes for the district’s three-year capital levy proposal with 57.9% opposed and 42.2% in favor. The levy would raise about $2.28 million over the three years. 

District voters have rejected two capital levy requests from WSD officials over the past five years, including in 2024. Harlow said the rejection will require district officials to make some tough decisions. The district has already eliminated about 40 positions over the last two school years. Harlow said there isn’t much left to cut.  

“I would say we would have to cut some staff to make up this difference, and how much is too much when we can’t serve kids?” he said.  

Updated vote totals will be released at 5 p.m. Thursday, according to the Grant County Auditor’s Office.  

Property owners would pay an estimated 75 cents for each $1,000 of assessed property value. That’s $75 for each $100,000 of assessed property value.  

A property owner with land valued at $250,000 will pay $187.50 per year. A person with property valued at $300,000 will pay $225 per year.  

The money would pay off a loan the district took to replace the heating-cooling system at Mattawa Elementary. Paying off the loan will cost about $2.2 million. 

The rest of the money raised through the levy would go toward fire alarm and security upgrades at MES, Morris Schott STEAM Elementary, Saddle Mountain Elementary and Wahluke Junior High School. 

Harlow said the MES heating-cooling system was an example of deferred maintenance that finally resulted in the need for immediate replacement, even though the district had to get a loan to do the work. Harlow called it “the tyranny of the urgent,” and said that’s been a problem in the district. 

“It was almost 10 years past due,” he said. “We spent something like $20,000 in the springtime just to get through (to the end of the school year). We had these portable (air conditioning) units in classrooms and tubes going all over. We (said), ‘We have to pull the trigger.’”   

Harlow said the fire alarm and security systems have been upgraded over time, but that doesn’t apply to all the system hardware. Some of that hasn’t been upgraded since the mid-1980s, he said.  

District officials have started work on a 10-year plan for maintenance and facility upgrades, with the first meeting of a citizens committee planned for late February or early March. Harlow said eight to 10 district patrons and teachers have volunteered to be part of it, but there’s still room for more. The goal is to produce a plan by the end of the 2024-25 school year, he said. 

    A Mattawa Elementary student does an exercise – that involves a lollipop – to celebrate 100 days of school. A capital levy request to help pay off a loan taken out to pay for Mattawa Elementary’s heating-cooling system is being rejected by Wahluke School District voters.