Wahluke, MLSD, Ephrata levy requests approved by voters

EPHRATA — Voters in the Moses Lake and Ephrata school districts approved maintenance and operations levies and Wahluke School District voters approved a capital projects levy. The results of the Feb. 11 special election were certified Friday.  

Moses Lake School District patrons approved a four-year levy request with 6,690 yes votes to 4,533 no votes, 59.61% approving. The passage came after levy voters twice rejected a levy request in 2024. At the same time district officials discovered that accounting errors and inaccurate enrollment counts had drained MLSD reserves. 

Moses Lake Superintendent Carol Lewis said the levy vote is a chance for a fresh start.  

“The certification of this levy signifies stability and the beginning of rebuilt trust between Moses Lake School District and the greater community,” she said in a statement released Friday. “Moses Lake’s district administration and (Moses Lake School Board) recognize the enormous responsibility we carry to remain accountable to the community, and we will do everything we can to ensure ongoing transparency and collaboration.” 

Ryan Shannon, MLSD director of public relations, said district officials were forced to subject all spending to rigorous analysis after the levy rejection, and that’s going to continue.  

“We’re not going to back to the way it was done,” he said. “We’re going to be very prudent; we’re going to be very budget conscious.” 

Lewis has been clear with district staff that all spending will be evaluated by one standard, Shannon said — it must benefit students.  

“Any of those decisions will be based off student need,” he said. “Building by building, department by department, what are the needs of our students?” 

Even with the levy approved MLSD will have to monitor its finances, since the district won’t receive any money collected from the levy until about May 2026. Because of that district officials will be analyzing the budget reductions in 2024-25 to see what can and can’t — and what should and shouldn’t - be restored in 2025-26 

“Those kinds of conversations are just beginning,” he said. 

Wahluke School District voters narrowly approved a two-year levy designed to pay back an outstanding loan taken out for repairs and to upgrade some of the hardware in the fire alarm and security system in four WSD buildings.  

Voters cast 323 yes votes and 307 no votes for 51.27% approval. That was a marked change from the results released on election night when the proposal was trailing by 55 votes. 

“Today is an exciting day for Wahluke and our community,” Harlow wrote in response to a question from the Columbia Basin Herald. “Since 2018, when we made the final payment on (Wahluke High School), we haven’t made a significant financial investment in our facilities. That changed today. This is extremely exciting and encouraging.” 

District officials have worked to improve the district’s finances, he said, an endeavor that sometimes required difficult decisions. One of the goals was to allow the district to catch up on deferred maintenance — and some of it had been deferred for a long time. The bulk of the levy money will be used to pay for one of those projects, replacement of the heating-cooling system at Mattawa Elementary.  

The fire and security alarms at WSD’s three elementary schools and Wahluke Junior High have been upgraded over time, Harlow said, but some of the hardware is dated to the 1980s. Harlow said district officials are thinking of ways to make the updates as quickly as possible. 

“We won’t actually receive those capital levy dollars until April 2026, so we’ve started working on a plan this week to start the security and fire alarm systems as early as this summer or fall but pay for the project in April 2026,” Harlow said.  

Ephrata School District voters cast 1,846 yes votes and 937 no votes, for 66.33% approval. The levy proposal is for four years. 

“The levy provides stable funding for current programs and services that the state does not fully cover, all of which play a vital role in a well-rounded educational experience for our students,” Ephrata Superintendent Ken Murray said in an earlier interview. “By voting in support of this levy, (the community has) indicated that support our students and schools is important.” 

    Moses Lake Future Farmers of America advisor Tony Kern, right, talks to students at Columbia Middle School during an outreach presentation designed to show middle school students some of the options when they reach high school. District voters approved a four-year educational programs and operations levy request according to final special election results.