From Ocean Shores to Elma, nine school districts in Grays Harbor and North Pacific County are asking voters to support property tax levies in February’s special election, as districts seek to replace expiring levies for staffing and extracurriculars.

The state Legislature’s 2017 McCleary fix — the response to a 2012 state Supreme Court that mandated the state to pay for basic education — provided more state funding for school districts and limited the amount districts can ask voters to pay through a levy to $2.50 per $1,000 of assessed property value.

Districts use Educational Programs and Operations levies to cover areas the state still doesn’t fund — programs, like sports, music, buses, maintenance, support staff and special education.

County wide, all but one of the levies are for programs and operations. Each measure will need a simple majority to pass.

Grays Harbor County Auditor Joe Maclean said ballots hit voters’ mailboxes Jan. 24, and must be returned to ballot boxes or postmarked by 7:59 p.m. on Election day, Feb. 13. Maclean recommended mailing ballots at least the Friday before election day to ensure on-time postmarking.

Aberdeen

Aberdeen School District is running two levies that represent the largest cumulative sum of any other school measure on the Feb. 13 ballot. In addition to Aberdeen’s levy for educational programs and operations, which would garner the maximum $2.50 per $1,000 of assessed value, the school board approved in November a smaller levy ask at $1 per $1,000 of assessed value for building maintenance.

Aberdeen Superintendent Jeff Thake told The Daily World in November the district’s maintenance needs include intercom upgrades, roofs, repairing landslide damage to tennis courts, resurfacing, playgrounds, parking lots, ramps and others.

The pair of levies would allow the district to collect property tax for the next four years, from 2025 through 2028, amounting to a cumulative total of $33 million. The capital projects levy will garner anywhere from $2.18 million to $2.46 million each year over the next four years, amounting to a little more than $9 million.

The operations levy will garner about $6 million each year for the next four years, a total of about $24 million.

In the last few years, Aberdeen taxpayers have paid at a rate of about $3.83 per $1,000 of assessed value to the school district. A previous 20-year taxpayer bond, which paid for Aberdeen High School, dropped off the tax rolls at the end of 2023, leaving only the $2.50 operations levy on the books for 2024.

The district’s current programs and operations levy, which the district aims to replace, will expire at the end of 2024. If voters approve the replacement measure and the capital projects levy, the 2025 rate will be about $3.50 per $1,000 of assessed value.

In a presentation to the school board in November, Thake estimated that, for a home worth $250,000, approval of the two levies combined would cost property owners in the Aberdeen district anywhere from $830 to $875 each year for the next four years.

Hoquiam

The Hoquiam School District has been through several actions to finance capital projects in the last year, from closing schools to crafting — and then abandoning — a proposed bond. The levy the district is proposing on the Feb. 13 ballot is separate from those discussions.

A proposed two-year levy that Hoquiam voters will see on their upcoming ballots would replace an expiring levy and garner $2.50 per $1,000 of assessed property value. That’s about $625 per year for a home valued at $250,000.

Voters approved the same levy rate in 2022 and that was collected the last two years, said Hoquiam Superintendent Mike Villarreal. If approved again, the levy would collect $3.2 million in 2025 and $3.6 million in 2026, approximately 8% of the district budget.

If approved by voters, the levy would also trigger more than $1 million in additional funding each year through the state’s Local Effort Assistance program.

“In order to get that money, you have to pass your levy,” Villarreal said.

Even if the levy is approved, Hoquiam taxpayers will see their total school district property taxes fall at the end of 2024 after the Lincoln School bond measure — approved in 2018 at a rate of roughly $1.25 per $1,000 of assessed value — expires.

In addition to extracurriculars and staffing, the operations and programs levy can contribute to fund maintenance needs, for which the aging buildings of the Hoquiam district have a great need. Villarreal said some money is also “discretionary funds” that can be used on miscellaneous items like microphones for the theater or goals for the soccer field.

While some might go to maintenance, Villarreal said, the levy is separate from the district’s capital projects funding. After opting to close Central Elementary School no earlier than 2025 to consolidate aging infrastructure amid shrinking enrollment, the district planned last summer to run a $42 million dollar bond measure to take care of a slate of major building repairs across the district.

Those plans changed in November. After discussions with the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Educational Service District, the Hoquiam district realized the state’s school seismic safety program, which funds retrofits for districts at risk of earthquake and tsunami hazards, was ready to implement a grant program for Hoquiam — and potentially pay for the replacement of Hoquiam High School. The district dropped its bond plans.

Mary White, president of the Hoquiam Kids First Committee, a longtime supporter of the district, said a levy more for extracurriculars like sports is especially important in helping students reengage with activities that were taken away during the pandemic.

“The state doesn’t fully fund everything. They know they are going to fund a portion of it, but many things are mandated that aren’t funded. That’s where the levies come in. We’ve always been supportive of our schools. I hope to see that continue, because our kids need it now more than ever.”

North Beach

After multiple ballot measure failures for school building and seismic improvements in recent years, the North Beach School District is seeking to renew an operations levy that funds programs not paid for by the state.

If approved, the levy would provide $2,345,486 in 2025 and $2,345,486 in 2026 at an estimated rate of $0.70 per $1,000 of assessed value.

“This is nothing that’s new,” Superintendent Jim Shank said in an interview. “This is a renewal levy. The community has supported this levy ever since its inception.

Shank placed extra emphasis on the levy’s funding for special education paraeducators in the district, which he said is a high need. Salaries and benefits for staff is a “sizeable chunk,” of what the levy would pay for, he said.

“These kids have these needs, and we’ve got to have professionals working with them, and we just don’t get enough money from the state,” Shank said.

Montesano

The Montesano School District is running a four-year educational programs and operations levy that would replace the property taxes expiring at the end of 2024.

The new levy would bring in anywhere from $3.2 to $3.8 million each year from 2025 through 2028 at a rate of $2.50 per $1,000 of assessed value. Montesano Superintendent Dan Winter said voters approved the same rate in 2020, although it fell to $1.95 in 2023 because property values rose during the pandemic.

“We’re asking voters to do the exact same thing,” Winter said.

Winter said the levy will fund extracurriculars like band arts, sports, additional salaries and benefits, highly capable student programs, counseling nursing, librarians, and more.

“This community has always supported the schools, not only with levies but in everything else that we do,” Winter said. “We appreciate that support and look forward to that being continued in the future.”

Elma

Elma School District is looking to replace an expiring levy for Educational Programs and Operations at an estimated rate of $2.19 per $1,000 of assessed property value, which will collect about $3.1 million in 2025 and 2026.

That’s the same rate Elma voters have approved for collection since the McCleary decision in 2018, said Elma School District Superintendent Christopher Nesmith. Rising property values lowered the rate slightly to $2.07 in 2023.

Nesmith said the levy will pay for extracurriculars like athletics and music as well as staffing costs, especially special education.

But even if the replacement levy is approved, Nesmith said Elma’s staffing budget will still be strained. In 2018, the district began receiving extra money from the state for what Nesmith called the “experience factor” — a formula of the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction that allocates more money to districts with seasoned teachers. After a 2023 reassessment of that metric, Elma lost the experience factor, and was one of seven districts in the state to have 2% of its staffing costs cut for the 2023-2024 year.

Nesmith said the district held community meetings last fall to discuss the levy. He asked attendees about raising the operations levy rate to compensate for the loss in state funding.

“There was no interest in changing that rate,” he said.

He said the district is running the levy “knowing we’re not going to be backfilling what’s coming.”

“We are running a levy at a lower rate and we’re losing 2% on staffing, so Elma is moving forward on a plan at a lower tax rate at the behest of our community,” he said.

Nesmith said the operations levy is separate from ongoing capital projects planning across the district. In 2023 voters rejected a proposed $66 million bond that would’ve funded a $45 million new elementary school and a $15 million renovation to athletic fields.

Nesmith said the district chose to hold off on asking for more capital projects funding this time around.

“If the levy doesn’t pass, we’re not going to have any sports to have inside an athletic stadium,” Nesmith said. “This is not for athletic stands. There’s truly no point in having stands with no games to play inside of them.”

Cosmopolis

The Cosmopolis School District is running a two-year educational programs and operations levy to replace one expiring at the end of 2024.

The district is asking voters to approve a levy at a rate of $2.27 per $1,000, estimated to collect a total amount of $660,000 each year in 2025 and 2026, which is the same amount taxpayers have paid the last several years, according to the district.

The use of levy funds at Cosmopolis School District, which consists only of the K-6 Cosmopolis Elementary School, is slightly different from larger districts. Cosmopolis Superintendent Ann Tracey said levy funds contribute to maintenance and staffing costs, but also to “non-high” payments — money Cosmopolis district pays Aberdeen School District for schooling Cosmopolis Elementary grads once they leave sixth grade.

Cosmopolis Elementary doesn’t currently have music or athletic programs, although the district is kickstarting a fifth grade basketball program with a Grays Harbor Community Foundation grant.

“Passage of the levy would continue that program and allow us to expand it to fourth grade next year,” Tracey said.

According to the district, the Cosmopolis School District receives about 62% of its funding from state and federal sources, and the community pays about 35% through local levies.

Raymond

The Raymond School District hopes to pass a replacement operations levy at a lower rate than what taxpayers in the district currently pay.

If approved, the four-year levy would collect about $975,000 each year for the next four years, from 2025 through 2028. That will take an estimated rate of $1.97 per $1,000 of assessed value — about $0.40 lower than the current tax rate.

“We wanted to lower it as far as we could to help the taxpayers in Raymond and yet still be able to offer the programs we do and continue to build,” Raymond Superintendent K.C. Johnson said.

Johnson said levy money accounts for 12% of the district’s total programs budget. He said the cost for extracurricular transportation has skyrocketed in recent years due to rising fuel costs. Historically, a district levy flyer states, 38% of levy funds have been used on extracurriculars, and another 28% are for teaching and support staff.

If voters approve the levy in February, the district will also receive $250,000 each year in Levy Equalization Funds from the state. That program directs supplemental money to districts where property values are relatively poor. Johnson said recent rising property values have chopped the district’s equalization funds in half.

Oakville

The Oakville School District placed a four-year operations levy on the upcoming ballot that would replace one expiring at the end of 2024.

The levy would garner property tax at a rate of $2.15 per $1,000 of assessed value, the same rate that voters adopted in a 2020 levy election.

Oakville Superintendent Rich Staley said the district expects to collect slightly more money than in past years as property values have risen.

The levy will pay for music, sports, technology and allow for smaller class sizes. Staley said the funding is important for special education programs. He said more than 20% of Oakville students are in special education classes, and the state only pays for three-quarters of those students.

“More than anything else, we’re just trying to maintain the programs and the growth we’ve been able to do in the last few years,” Staley said.

Some of the funding, Staley said, will go toward maintaining the district’s expanded campus. Voters approved a $5.6 million bond in 2020 for a new Oakville Elementary School, which, after its completion in 2022, roughly tripled the district’s building footprint.

“We need more people to maintain it,” Staley said.

McCleary

The McCleary School District is seeking to replace its Educational Programs and Operations levy at $2.50 per $1,000 of assessed value.

Voters approved that same rate in November 2022 for a levy that will expire at the end of 2024. If approved in February, the new levy would garner about $1.28 million each year in 2025 and 2026 — about 14% of the school district’s budget.

According to the district, those funds will go to staffing, special education, preschool, music, athletics and science and technology education.

The district also uses levy funds to pay other districts where students attend high school after graduating from McCleary’s Pre-K-8 school.

“Some of these items we’re required to pay for regardless of whether we have levy funding, and some we do because we want students to have a well-rounded education,” McCleary School District Superintendent Susan Zetty said in a video released by the district.

Contact reporter Clayton Franke at 406-552-3917 or clayton.franke@thedailyworld.com.