February 14, 2012 in News

Levies pass in Spokane’s largest districts

Jody Lawrence-Turner The Spokesman-Review

Spokane County school officials were nervous about their levies leading up to Tuesday’s election because of a fierce anti-levy campaign and volatile economic times.

But voting results showed community support for the school districts is still strong in a majority of the county.

The levies in the region’s largest districts – Spokane Public Schools, Mead School District and Central Valley School District – were passing with about 60 percent approval.

As of Tuesday night, more than 100,000 ballots had been counted. An estimated 15,000 more ballots were expected to be counted, according to Vicky Dalton, Spokane County Auditor.

“I’m so excited and thrilled,” said Spokane Public Schools Superintendent Nancy Stowell. “This is a strong affirmation from our community.”

The two-, three- and four-year maintenance and operation levies replace the current local tax with a few dimes tacked on to compensate for state budget cuts. District officials say levies are more critical now than ever before because the local tax is helping pay for more basic education as state revenue has been reduced.

In 2009, levies were less than 15 percent of a school district’s operating budget compared to 20 to 25 percent now.

“I just don’t know what kind of school district we would have had if it would have gone down,” Mead School District Superintendent Thomas Rockefeller said. “I’m very pleased with the results.”

All but three of Spokane County’s school districts had levies on Tuesday’s ballot. Only Riverside School District, which also includes voters in Pend Oreille County, and Deer Park School District, which includes voters in Pend Oreille and Stevens counties, appeared to be failing.

Deer Park had just 47 percent approval and Riverside had only 37 percent. Nine Mile Falls School District’s levy was too close to call.

Nearly 100 supporters of Central Valley School District gathered at an area coffee shop to await the election results on Tuesday.

The group was relieved to find out it had passed. “Absolutely we were worried, and excited to see the results,” said Superintendent Ben Small. “We are confident the results will stick. We are excited for our children and our community for stepping up and supporting our students.”

Kerry Lynch, Citizens for Spokane Schools Levy campaign coordinator, said this campaign was different than any she’s been a part of since the 1970s.

“I think this one had a lot of energy…a lot of volunteers,” she said. “People were really fired up, especially because of the negative campaign out there.”

Retired business owner Duane Alton led an anti-levy campaign throughout the county. According to state records, Alton spent more than $60,000 on mailers, billboards and leaflets.

Stowell thinks community support combated the negative campaign, including endorsements from business organizations, higher education and nonprofits.

The estimated tax rate will go up in nearly all districts because property values have gone down and many of the districts have asked voters to approve a little more money to compensate for a possible cut to state levy equalization funds – money given to poorer school districts. If the state comes through, however, district officials pledge they will not collect those additional funds.

The largest portion of the tax, about 80 percent on average, supports educational programs: drop-out prevention; smaller class sizes, which includes supplementing salaries for teachers and support staff; custodial staff; library positions; online learning; a number of administrative positions; school resource officers; elective classes in high school; and elementary school art and music programs.

The tax supports hundreds of positions in each school district. In Spokane Public Schools, that’s about 3,000 positions, including teachers, coaches, extracurricular advisors, special education teachers, administrators and support staff. The remainder of the district’s compensation costs are covered by state and federal money.

Melanie Rose, Central Valley spokeswoman, described her thoughts of the levy passing in one word: “yay.”

23 comments on this story so far. Add yours!

liberal_in_right_wing_land on February 14 at 10:09 p.m.
Congratulations. So glad people did not fall for the outright lies being spread by the lying liars in the opposition group with those disgusting fliers they had mailed out.
Major setback for the usual people on here who blame teachers for the downfall of everything and were SCREAMING about how much they wanted and thought this was to going to be defeated. Guess people don’t hate our schools, the teachers and the district as you try to make it sound like on here.
reservedparking on February 14 at 10:29 p.m.
The vocal minority may live here, but the majority of voters in the real world refused to give in to the misinformation of a disgruntled, narrow-minded group.
woamike on February 14 at 10:41 p.m.
The status-quo will continue thanks to people easily duped by the constant braying of “it’s for the kids”. Chalk up another win for the establishment - they’ll be partying hard tonight.
David Bray on February 14 at 11:01 p.m.
Same old liberal “solution”. Just keep throwing money at the problem. I’d like those that supported this levy to show me the statistics that validate the funds that have already been spent every year…… on an educational system that continues to perform poorly. A 33% dropout rate, low scores on tests, a top heavy school administration, low ratings on local schools by the State….good grief. When will people wake up and find real solutions to these problems?
8john on February 14 at 11:02 p.m.
Interesting article. Someone needs to file legal action against the various districts as the article makes it clear that this money is being used for illegal purposes.
Those that spent 60K trying to educate voters simply were not presenting the facts. It is now time for them to come clean and make their opposition based on fact and law not hysterics.
This article makes it very clear that levies are highly discriminatory towards our youth.
It is also clear that the Spokesman was very one sided in the presentation of facts relating to the various proposals put to voters. I expect better of the Spokesman!
Those that have get more and those who have not get less. This was decided by misinformed voters encouraged by administrators who are using the money for illegal purposes.
Shadedmuse on February 14 at 11:24 p.m.
for you tea-baggers complaining about being tax enough, you guys just voted ro raise your taxes, you just proofed your a joke.
woamike on February 14 at 11:36 p.m.
Shady,
Who’s the lady?
mdriftmeyer on February 15 at 2:42 a.m.
33% drop out rate? Where? Which schools? Which grades?
When standards were strict and students didn’t get credit just for showing up [back in the late 80s] School District 81 didn’t have a 33% drop out rate that you claim.
Certain schools like Rogers did have higher dropout rates but mainly in the areas of Industrial Arts and that’s not surprising because thats the first areas that were cut.
Cut the trades and you will knee cap a large section of students never interested beyond the trades.
Bring back the trades, upgrade them to more advanced trades in manufacturing [As a Mechanical Engineer I doubt you’d want to have a discussion with me on advanced manufacturing] and design and you’ll see a generation of kids jacked about learning.
Then a transition to advanced Industrial Arts for an AA degree or an Industrial design 4 year degree will bring a resurgence of advanced design in the states.
The fact people think professional machinists, to CNC Operators and much more aren’t needed in the states speaks volumes to the ignorance being spread and sheer ignorance of the sheep on the right who haven’t a clue that advances in the hard sciences are coming faster now than they did during the highest levels of manufacturing in the US.
Robotics, IC Design, MEMS, and much more with specialty equipment doesn’t require a B.S. in M.E/E.E/Materials, etc., to make a high wage and live a full life, but without the money invested both publicly and jointly with industry the next generation will never have a shot.
If you think China doesn’t fully subsidize their trades and hard sciences then you’re a fool.
misjustice on February 15 at 6:14 a.m.
So, what will happen in the Districts where the levy failed? Will there be an effort, soon, to ask for another levy?
Jeffrey_Grey on February 15 at 6:21 a.m.
“…the misinformation of a disgruntled, narrow-minded group.”
More and more these days, the regressives are becoming a prolific source for such delightful irony.
riverlaw on February 15 at 6:21 a.m.
Mr. Alton — I know a certain tire place I won’t be visiting anymore.
lewis8457 on February 15 at 7:29 a.m.
all my fault i voted NO, everything i vote no on passes.
well now district 81 can build more baseball stadiums.
Lowrider on February 15 at 7:45 a.m.
I agree with riverlaw. I will not spend another dime at Alton’s. I’m glad the levies passed. I backs up my belief that there is a silent majority out there that support the quality of life in Spokane. Congratulations to the teachers in the districts that passed. By the way, @mdriftmeyer, great post, I couldn’t agree with you more.
westerly on February 15 at 8:02 a.m.
<mdriftmeyer> 33 % rate…
Its here
http://inlandnw.wordpress.com/about/
johnclarke on February 15 at 8:02 a.m.
Two things - I don’t believe that Duane Alton owns the tire chain any more - someone might know more but I thought they were bought out years ago.
Second
“The estimated tax rate will go up in nearly all districts because property values have gone down”
Yeah, I’m “all for kids” since my child is actually in one of the districts. I’m just not in favor in these blank checks ($60 million in my district alone) when everyone has seen home values drop. Where is the logic in this? What is wrong for asking for a little adjustment by the schools in these times? A few less administrators perhaps? (one $180k admin position could hire 3 teachers)
Anyway, I can’t say anything because then I’ll be a nay sayer and “anti kid” right ?
CougarGold on February 15 at 8:19 a.m.
Alton’s is now Tire Rama. It was sold a few years ago. Duane Alton is behind all the misinformation campaign, just as he was last time when the flyers missed a decimal point and misstated the levy impact tenfold. Seems he could have used some remedial math classes.
I don’t have kids and live in the Mead District. We have voted in favor of levy support in every election. This is, in spite of what the naysayers claim, the kind of public support we need to educate our kids and prepare our future workforce. Are our school systems perfect? No, but nothing is so everyone who is concerned should get involved in an effort to better the systems, not stand on the sidelines and degrade those who are doing the work. And yes, even as a fiscal conservative, I support taxes for public education even though I don’t have a direct interest since I have no kids.
de3 on February 15 at 9:18 a.m.
The 1 in 3 drop out rate was in a Spokesman-Review article in 2010 when Ben Stuckart was trying to pass a separate tax measure to address the problem.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/feb/21/levy-would-finance-dropout-rate-battle/
The tax measure didn’t pass but the drop out rate went down anyway because a big part of it was due to bad paper work that did not keep track of students.
CougarGold on February 15 at 9:54 a.m.
Regarding the 33% dropout rate, this is from the 2010 Census:
Education level achieved in Spokane:
Index…………………………Spokane…….Washington…National
Completed 8th grade………90.0%…………87.0%………83.2%
Completed high school……88.1%…………84.8%………79.3%
Completed some college…61.8%…………57.2%………49.7%
Completed AA degree…….35.1%…………30.3%………28.8%
Completed bachelors……..25.4%…………22.5%………22.8%
Completed masters………….9.2%…………..7.4%………..8.4%
Completed prof. degree……3.2%…………..2.3%………..2.8%
Completed doctorate………..1.0%…………..0.7%………..0.9%
http://www.areavibes.com/spokane-wa/education/
Clearly there is a disconnect between the incomplete record-keeping of the school districts and the census. Spokane Public Schools doesn’t (or didn’t, don’t know for sure now what they’re doing) track students who leave a school, only that they’ve left. The student may have moved, transferred within the district, or chose some alternative education such as private schooling.
At one point, the Children’s Investment Fund group was touting a 40% dropout rate to bolster their campaign. That dropped to 28% prior to the election. The census numbers show significantly less numbers and above both state and national averages. While there’s always room for improvement, we’re not in the dire straights some would like us to believe.
de3 on February 15 at 11:51 a.m.
Good work, CougarGold.
Most of the data in the whole education sector is sloppy at the state and federal level since it rolls up poorly collected local data. I doubt that comparing local to state or national numbers means much since everyone’s data is in such poor shape and accurate to about +/- 10% or +/- 20%.
You are right about the CIF group touting a bogus 40% drop out rate in their early campaign.
de3 on February 15 at 12:18 p.m.
CougarGold, I take back what I just wrote - the web site you linked is not a reliable source of info.
US Bachelor’s degrees - 2010 - age 25 and over is 28.2% for the entire country (from US Census American Factfinder web site)
WA Bachelor’s degrees - 2009 - 30.8% from Washington State Office of Financial Management at http://www.ofm.wa.gov/trends/social/fig208.asp
Spokane is on par with the US but is less than than the state on Bachelor’s degrees as you can see
http://www.communityindicators.ewu.edu/graph.cfm?id=111
From EWU, on time high school grad rates in Spokane are around 76%
http://www.communityindicators.ewu.edu/graph.cfm?id=108
From WA State’s OSPI, the on time grad rate in WA is 72% and 80% for five year grads.
http://reportcard.ospi.k12.wa.us/summary.aspx?year=2010-11
I am not going to bother checking other numbers since the areavibes numbers are useless.
The basic issue is true, and that’s the drop out rate people used to throw around was said to be 40%, but went down a lot once bad record keeping was fixed up.
CougarGold on February 15 at 12:28 p.m.
de3 - hmmmm….interesting. I’ll have to do some digging to see if I can determine their sourcing; or if they’re just making it up on the fly. Thanks for the note on their reporting accuracy.
mauijim on February 15 at 4:54 p.m.
To Shademuse,
By the looks of your poor grammar you must of went to a school that could not pass levies. That is why I voted yes.
flyerd1 on February 15 at 6:54 p.m.
–Regardless of your levy beliefs it should be disconcerting that we seem to have such a biased newspaper:–
There was a time when news agencies dissected both sides of issues and allowed equal time for each side to represent their arguments. It seems the Spokesman has completely lost it’s way in this regard and forsaken those historical civic responsibilities. Rather, they move ever closer to a checkout stand publication with little use aside from advertising and pushing agendas. The recent levy controversy is yet another example of extreme bias:
In regard to published comments there were:
33 Pro Levy (including numerous “staff editorials” and “Guest Opinion” columns with NO 200 word limits)…
vs.
3 Anti-Levy (with none of the aforementioned “extra long” columns). Interestingly (by pure coincidence I’m sure), 2 of the 3 were posted a scant 2 days before the voting deadline (after most people have typically already voted)…
11x more pro levy and multiple allowed to be greater than the 200 word limit. “News” Bias? The answer seems obvious and should be seen as sad and disturbing “by everyone”.