In Third Attempt, Centralia School Board Tentatively Plans to Run Levy Again in April

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The Centralia School Board tentatively decided Wednesday afternoon to run the education programs and operations (EP&O) levy in the upcoming April 27 election.

It will be the district’s third attempt to pass the levy by receiving at least 50 percent of the vote, plus one vote. The rate at which the levy will run has not been decided yet.

School board members agreed that they want to take into account the results of the levies run by other districts in the February election before fully committing to running their levy in April. The other option they are considering is the Aug. 3 election. 

The district’s Budget Task Force, which is composed of community members, school staff, school board members and a Centralia High School student, was created to help address the budget deficit caused by the levy failures and determine the best approach to running it again. The task force provided a list to the board on the positives and negatives of running the levy in either April or August, which was discussed at the meeting.

The school board agreed since the April election is during the school year when students, parents and staff are actively involved with the school, it could increase the odds of the levy passing. The earlier election also gives the district the opportunity to run the levy again in August or November if it was to fail for the third time.

Centralia Superintendent Dr. Lisa Grant said when the board thinks about what to set the levy amount at for the April election, they should be thinking about exactly what services they want those levy dollars to fund. 

“That really has been a strong recommendation. What are we doing to improve what’s happening for our students and how are we using those funds? Knowing that people are sacrificing, essentially, to say ‘yes’ when they vote. I want to be really intentional with that,” Grant said. 

The school board heard a presentation from Cory Plager, senior vice president with DA Davidson and former director of school finances with Educational Service District 101, that outlined the district’s history with passing levies, the local tax rates and the impacts the assessed property value has on the passage of the levy.

School districts across the state that ran levies in April 2020 showed a 90.3 percent passage rate compared to August 2020, the time of Centralia’s most recent levy failure, which showed a statewide passage rate of 59.3 percent, Plager reported. This statistic was influential in the board’s decision to plan for the April election. 



Based on the information provided by Plager, the Centralia School District was not alone in its double levy failure, as other districts across the state, especially those that experienced an increase in assessed valuation, had trouble passing a levy as well. 

“If we look at what other school districts in the state had high AV growth, it’s most possible that they were a double levy failure with you,” Plager said.

In 2020, there were a total of six districts in that state that suffered a double levy failure, Plager reported. Lewis, Okanogan and Stevens counties accounted for 48 percent of the double levy failures in the state since 2000. Lewis County accounted for seven double levy failures in that timeframe, the most of the three counties. 

In Centralia, a combination of factors drove the tax rate up, including a state school tax — a result of the McCleary decision — increased assessed value, the district’s capital projects levy and the school’s bond that voters supported. It was a “perfect storm,” Plager said. 

He explained how the McCleary decision, which increased state funding for basic education but resulted in the loss of local levy dollars for many districts, impacted the Centralia School District.

“Some districts weren’t ‘McCleary winners’, where, yes, the state is now covering education at a greater extent, but did they take away more local dollars than you received statewide? I think Centralia is in that boat where it hurt even worse when the voters didn’t support that $3.5 million levy,” Plager said.

After Centralia citizens rejected the school levy with a 69 percent “no” vote in February 2020, the district was faced with an $11.9 million budget deficit and later laid off 90 school employees. The Centralia School District ran the levy again in August 2020, and it failed again, this time with a 50.38 percent “no” vote. The COVID-19 pandemic has added to the district’s stress as they work to get all students back to the classroom safely. The district is planning to have all students back to school in a hybrid model by mid-March. 

Plager’s full presentation and the school board’s discussion with Grant can be viewed on the Centralia School District’s Facebook page. The next board meetings will be at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 27, and Feb. 10. The meetings will be streamed live on the district’s Facebook page.