FILE PHOTO — Geoff Parks talks about solar panels to be installed on the roof of the middle school gym in Napavine last November.
The Napavine School District intends to place a levy on the ballot this February that will replace the district’s current one, set to expire next year. As a result of the McCleary decision, the replacement levy will have more restrictions.
“What we have to do is figure out how can we spend funds differently,” said Napavine School District Superintendent Geoff Parks.
The Napavine School District will place a three-year levy for $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed property value on the ballot for the Feb. 12 special election.
“We figured out it’s about 37 percent less than the current levy (we) have right now,” Parks said. “It’s not a new levy — it’s a replacement, or a renewal levy.”
Parks said that even if voters in the Napavine School District approve the levy, the district projects it will lose roughly $400,000 in annual levy funds.
“These are all kind of rough projections,” Parks said. “... This year we brought in from the levy and the LEA (local effort assistance funding) about $1.6 million, and then we will bring in about $1.2 million moving forward.”
Parks said that while there has been an increase in state funds — teachers, for example, received raises as a result of McCleary — it will not cover the total $400,000 loss from the levy funds.
“Even with the levy passing next year, we are going to need to tighten our belts,” Parks said.
The Napavine School District will evaluate its financial state over the next three months, Parks said.
“We are going to try to find a way to make everyone happy,” Parks said. “What we haven’t talked about is we have an increase in the categorical funds as well, which help offset costs. … Kind of every school district is in the same boat that they have to figure out a new way to fund the programs that they’re doing.”
The levy on February’s ballot will help fund smaller class sizes, specialty and elective classes, classified staff, extracurricular activities and facility maintenance, among other supplemental school activities and needs.
“With the new legislation, you are limited to doing the $1.50 per $1,000 for a levy now,” Parks said. “... Before you could say ‘we need this much money to pay for these things.’ Now you don’t do that anymore.”
The maximum school districts in Washington state can collect from local levies is $2,500 per student at $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed property value. However, if the $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed property value does not collect at least $1,500 per student, the state will chip in funds, Parks said.
According to RCW 28A.500.010, the legislature intends to provide assistance in funding activities that enrich, but do not fall under, basic education in “property-poor districts” with local effort assistance funding.
“The purpose of these funds is to mitigate the effect that above average property tax rates might have on the ability of a school district to raise local revenues to supplement the state’s basic program of education,” the state statute reads in part. “These funds serve to equalize the property tax rates that individual taxpayers would pay for such levies and to provide tax relief to taxpayers in high tax rate school districts.”
However, voters in the Napavine School District must approve the levy in February to access these funds.
The current levy for the Napavine School District expires in January 2020, and was originally passed at $2.40 per $1,000 of assessed property value, Parks said. This new levy would be another three-year levy that would begin in January 2020.
Residents in the Napavine School District also currently pay a bond that was approved in 2001, according to previous Chronicle reporting. However, Parks said that bond will be paid off this month.
“People will no longer be paying for the school bond in February,” Parks said.
Parks said the school district will also communicate the change in funding models with the unions, but does not expect teacher salaries to decrease.
