District sweating levy revote

Ballots are in the mail for a revote on a crucial $7 million replacement levy for West Valley School District.

The ballots, due back by May 16, are a retry for a levy that failed by 43 votes in March. The levy pays for some of the school district’s most basic services, including some busing, which could be on the chopping block if the revote fails. West Valley buses 85 percent of its elementary school students.

“That’s got us really concerned,” said Gene Sementi, assistant school superintendent, of the busing situation. “We have Trent and Sprague (avenues) and Argonne Road, a couple railroad tracks, the interstate and the Spokane River. We bus kids for safety who are only two blocks from school.”

However, the money keeps more than bus wheels rolling. It represents 20 percent of West Valley’s overall budget, including salaries for teachers and other employees. Voters have agreed for years to pay the amount, which is explained on ballots mailed Wednesday as paying for maintenance and operations. A majority of voters endorsed the levy March 14, but a 60 percent supermajority is required for passage.

Sementi and others were puzzled when the first levy failed because West Valley was the only unsuccessful district out of 15 with levies on the ballot that day. In retrospect, officials pointed to one glaring difference between West Valley’s levy election and the others: Thirteen other districts specified in their ballot language that their levies were replacing ones already on the tax rolls; it was possible that West Valley voters turned the levy down because they mistook it for a tax increase, rather than a continuation of the support they were already giving.

On the same ballot where the maintenance and operations levy failed was another levy specifically for classroom computers and technology upgrades. The technology levy passed easily.

Superintendent Polly Crowley said she suspects the maintenance levy failed for not one reason but several. There were households in Northwood, the district’s most affluent neighborhood, which received new property tax reassessments in the mail at the same time they received their school ballots.

Some voters after the election told school officials they rejected the levy because they assumed West Valley could use a $35 million construction bond passed in 2004 to pay the bills. But bonds and levies are different financial creatures. Bonds, like the one passed by West Valley voters for a new high school and other improvements, essentially work like loans borrowed for a specific purpose and paid back with interest over several years. Levies generally collect taxes that are spent right away, with no debt to repay.

Also, the March election was the very first all-mail ballot race. Speaking to voters after the election, Crowley said she learned some mistook their ballots for junk mail and threw them away.

And there were other snafus. Spokane County Election Manager Paul Brandt said some voters didn’t realize they needed to apply their own postage stamp to the return envelope before mailing in their ballot. Ballots also had to bear the exact signature of the registered voter, so spouses who filled out ballots for each other produced votes that didn’t pass muster.

But all ballots are mailed out with instructions, and Spokane County is making three drop-off sites available for anyone who doesn’t want to mail in a ballot. The ballots can be dropped off on May 16 at the Argonne Library, at the corner of Argonne Road and Upriver Drive; the Spokane County auditor’s office, at 1116 W. Broadway Ave. Spokane; and the elections office, 1033 W. Gardner Ave.

Both the auditor’s and elections offices will accept ballots before the election deadline. The night of the deadline, Argonne Library and the Elections Office will be open until 8 p.m. to accept votes.

Meanwhile, school district employees and volunteers are canvassing the district as if their jobs depended on the levy passing. Crowley said 300 people knocked on 6,000 doors on Saturday to get out the vote. School employees within that group who were most recently hired could lose their jobs if the levy fails.

By law, the district must notify contract teachers on May 15 if they’ll have jobs waiting for them come fall. Some will have to sit on pink slips for a day waiting to see if the May 16 election is successful.