West Valley levy passes
The West Valley School District made good on its second chance to come up with enough votes to approve a three-year replacement maintenance and operations levy Tuesday night.
Returns showed the measure receiving about 70 percent voter approval, 3,866 yes to 1,671 no.
In March, the vote fell 43 short of meeting the mandatory 60 percent supermajority needed to pass.
“We’re happy; we’re celebrating,” said Superintendent Polly Crowley. “I’m exhilarated. It is the West Valley way that we improve 10 percent from what we had before. We knew the community support was out there, but it just took a good effort to work the community and let them know exactly what this meant for their kids. Now we’ll get back to business.”
She said that as a precaution, the district hadn’t renewed a number of first-year employees, but they will receive their contract tomorrow.
“Everybody will be very, very happy about that,” Crowley said. “We had a great team effort. Our parents and our staff worked tirelessly. I couldn’t be more grateful.”
After the March levy failed, the district re-evaluated the situation, getting feedback from parents and community members. As a result, grass-roots citizens committees were formed at each school, said Sue Shields, district spokeswoman.
“Citizen VOTES (Volunteers Organized to Enlist Support) committees went door-to-door with ‘vote yes’ information and tax exemption forms for the elderly who qualified,” Shields said.
Parents, community members, staff members and students made phone calls to registered voters asking for their support. “There were a lot of misconceptions out there so we did a lot of Q-and-A with people,” she said.
Approval of the levy provides $6.7 million for 2007, $6.9 million for 2008 and $7.1 million for 2009. It represents 20 percent of the district’s budget. The funds pay for day-to-day expenses that the state doesn’t fund.
Levy money pays for personnel, including maintenance workers, cooks, secretaries, teaching staff, education assistants and technology staff.
Athletics and intramural sports are funded with levy funds, as are band, music, art and drama, after-school programs and extracurricular activities. The levy also funds school security officers.
Passage of the levy allows the district to continue to provide transportation to students who live less than a mile from school.
The district currently buses 85 percent of its elementary school students, many for safety reasons.
Busing the students means that they don’t have to cross busy arterials like Trent, Mullan and Broadway or travel over railroad tracks or the Spokane River.
With the renewal of this maintenance and operations levy, the state adds to what voters approve with “levy equalization.” This is designed to equalize the burden on local taxpayers with those across the state. The state contribution is estimated at $900,000.
Election results will be finalized and the vote certified May 26.