Rosalia School District asks voters to support two levy renewals for building upgrades and education

The small Rosalia School District along the southern edge of Spokane County has two levies on the February ballot, one for operations and one for capital projects, to replace two expiring levies.

Most school districts require an operations levy because Washington state does not fully fund some expenses, such as transportation, and doesn’t provide any funding for athletics and extracurricular activities. The two-year operations levy seeks to raise just over $1.1 million with a cost of $2.50 per $1,000 in assessed home value, a rate unchanged from the levy it would replace.

The capital levy is slated to be used for technology, safety and security, and would raise $90,000 a year for two years. The estimated cost is 41 cents per $1,000 in assessed home value in 2027 and 39 cents per $1,000 in 2028, which is just over $8 a month for a $250,000 home.

The district has nearly 156 students from Rosalia, Pine City, Malden, Thornton and all points in between, covering areas in both Spokane and Whitman counties. The district’s elementary school, middle school, high school and administrative offices are all in a single building.

Superintendent Julie Price said she wants to continue the work started with the last capital levy, which paid for secure keyless entry, complete with video cameras, on several doors of the school building. Price said she wants to add secure entry to the remaining exterior doors.

“We need the same thing on the other side of the building,” she said.

The oldest part of the building, which houses the high school, was built in 1936 and still has wooden interior doors and wooden door frames, some of which are in poor condition. Price said she wants to replace those with metal door frames and metal, ideally fireproof, doors that can lock automatically in case of emergency.

The district also has some old Chromebooks that are due to be replaced, which would be funded by the capital levy.

The operations levy pays for part of the district’s transportation budget and some teaching positions, including the music teacher. It also pays for after-school activities such as the district’s popular Future Farmers of America program, which 25 students participate in. The district also has a barn so that students who don’t have space at home to raise an animal can still participate, Price said.

“FFA is our largest student organization at the school,” said teacher and Career and Technical Education director Brianna Duncan.

Duncan teaches welding, woodshop and small engines, as well as horticulture. There’s a small greenhouse that students fill every year with plants that they sell to the community during an annual plant sale. Duncan said she’d like to add more classes focusing on chemistry and medical fields, which would be funded by levy money.

“We’ve been slowly working on upgrades,” she said.

The levy also pays for field trips. Fourth- and fifth-grade students were recently able to attend a Spokane Symphony performance, and other students attended a dress rehearsal of “White Christmas” at University High School in Spokane Valley.

“I think our students deserve to have rich experiences,” Price said. “I want them to be able to go to an FFA competition, I want them to be able to go on field trips.”

One of the key expenses that the operations levy pays for is the district’s insurance, Price said. It has increased 135 % over the past three years.

“Those costs hurt us and we can’t control that,” she said.

In the past, the community has always supported the district’s levies, which require a simple majority to pass, Price said. She’s hopeful that support will continue this year.

“We’re just really fortunate and thankful for our community and their willingness to support us,” she said. “They have open hands. They love their kids. They want to see them connected and learning.”

Ballots must be postmarked by Feb. 10.