A kid puts his shirt over his head as he walks to class with a family member Wednesday morning at Fords Prairie Elementary in Centralia.
The Centralia School District replacement levy’s votes have been close since election night on Aug. 4, and after the election was certified on Tuesday the levy failed by just 62 “no” votes or by 50.38 percent.
Looking at just the Lewis County voters, the levy tied with 3,941 for “yes” and 3,941 for “no.” The election includes some votes from Thurston County residents who live within the Centralia School District — pushing the levy to fail by 62 votes.
Centralia School District Superintendent Lisa Grant said that the close results were disappointing, but also encouraging because the margin of failure closed significantly since the levy failure in February — which failed with a 69 percent ‘no’ vote.
“We know we have continued work to do to build trust and to be good stewards of not only our students but of funding, and we are committed to that,” Grant said. “We are encouraged and hopeful based on the results that were so close. That’s a pretty big swing.”
In February, Centralia School District ran a levy at a rate of $2.50 per $1,000 in assessed property value which failed with a 69 percent “no” vote. The district then put a levy on the ballot for the April special election at a rate of $2.00 / $1,000 but removed it from the ballot after the COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent school closures. This most recently levy was on the ballot with a rate of $2.00 / $1,000.
Grant said the district now has to run the levy again and the school board will meet and consider all of the options. The district cannot run it again until the February 2021 election.
“I think we are hopeful because we made such a big swing to the positive and we are very thankful for the support of those that voted ‘yes’ as well as so many individuals and groups that worked tirelessly on the campaign,” said Grant.
Centralia School District will have to operate without levy funds for the second half of the 2020-21 school year and most of the 2021-22 school year because even if the levy passes in February 2021, the district won’t receive those funds until the following April.
“Essentially we will operate without the levy funds for the 2021-22 school year and we will be forced to make additional reductions because this year we had the $1.9 million from the current levy that we still have and next year we essentially won’t have any levy dollars,” said Grant.
Grant said that the number of additional cuts that will have to be made will depend on COVID-19 impacts, possible COVID relief money from the state and enrollment numbers.
The district has created a “budget task force” that will be meeting Aug. 24 to discuss how to proceed without levy funds and what cuts can be made while continuing to meet student needs.
“We are doing everything we can right now to save money. People make the assumption that the distance learning model is cheaper and while we will save money on some things, it will cost us more on others. We are trying to be as frugal as possible in everything right now,” she said.
The Centralia School Board voted during the May 5 school board meeting to approve a “reduced educational program” resolution which laid off 90 district employees to address the nearly $12 million projected deficit for the 2020-21 school year.
The district built the budget for the 2020-21 school year as if there was a double levy failure, which is now the case. Some of the cuts that were proposed by district staff included the elimination of athletics, reduced custodial support and groundskeeping, increased core class sizes and reduced co-curricular activities.
Since those options were presented, coaches stepped forward and said they would work for free to offer limited varsity sports. Although planned cuts were discussed in the case of a double levy failure, the school board has not yet voted on the program cuts.
The next Centralia School Board meeting is at 5 p.m. on Aug. 26 and it will be shown live on the district’s Facebook page.
