Deer Park School Bond Passes

For the first time in nearly 20 years, voters in the Deer Park School District passed a bond measure Tuesday.

Of 1,485 voters, 63 percent supported the $5.5 million bond.

Deer Park had not passed a school bond since 1977, when the money went to pay for the high school. Money from this bond will pay to refurbish 23-year-old Arcadia Elementary and 37-year-old Deer Park Junior High, as well as improvements at two other schools.

Residents who own a $100,000 home now will pay an additional $135 a year in property taxes.

In the Liberty School District south of Spokane, a 20-year bond proposal was falling short of the necessary 60 percent approval level.

The $7 million bond in the Liberty School District would pay for the construction and remodeling of overcrowded classrooms. With 81 percent of precincts counted, 57 percent of voters supported the measure.

The estimated tax rate for the bond was $2.27 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. District attempts to pass bonds in 1990, 1993 and 1994 all failed.

In Stevens County, a two-year operating levy in the Summit Valley School District was narrowly ahead, with a 62 percent approval rate, but absentee ballots must still be counted.

The $26,000-per-year levy would cost property owners an estimated $1.39 per $1,000 of assessed value.