Hello, I'm Teresa Lukens. On February 13th, Spokane Public Schools will again be
asking voters to renew a three-year educational program and operations
replacement levy. The current levy expires at the end of
2018 and this replacement levy continues to support programs and staff that help
maintain programs for students that the state does not fund. In Washington state
local school educational program levies are used by a majority of the 295
districts, investing in those specific areas that each community feels is
important for their schools. This includes ensuring that the district can
offer a variety of programs and supports, both in and out of the classroom.
Levy dollars provide almost 11% of the total Spokane Public Schools annual budget.
Over 90 cents of every levy dollar goes to support direct education in the
classroom - teachers and school support staff that students come into contact
with every day, such as counselors, nurses, librarians, music and art teachers to
name a few. Campus resource officers, who help keep our school safe, and support
staff, who keep our schools well maintained, are also funded from school
levies, so educators can do their important work. I think there's something
like seventy seven different languages spoken in Spokane schools, so we've got
people to help support those students. We've got interpreters so when I go to
have my conferences, interpreters can come if I need it. The other thing is
that we've got a lot more students with a lot of different special needs, and so
we've got people to support kids in that way. We've got mental health therapists
that are here, we've got school counselors who can connect kids and
families to community services, and then we also have instructional assistants
who can come in and help us manage the differing needs of our kids. As I'm out
visiting schools, and visiting with our community partners we
talked a lot about the importance of all of these other supports. People such as
counselors, campus resource officers, nurses. And our levies are an important
part of providing after-school activities for our students, including
robotics, athletics, also some of our music programs, and things other than
just day to day activities. What will be the cost for property owners to replace
this levy for the next three years of 2019, 20, and 21?
Property owners currently pay $3.77 cents per thousand dollars of assessed
value on this expiring levy. With increased state funding of public K-12
education, this levee renewal will be significantly less than the last levy,
approved in 2015. In fact, the estimated rate per thousand dollars of assessed
property value drops to a dollar fifty for the three years of this replacement levy.
An educated, well-rounded workforce is the number one thing that
companies are looking at when they're looking at moving to Spokane, and to be
able to have the breadth of opportunities that we have from our K-12
and higher education system, whether it's STEM programs, whether it's focused after
school spaces with the robotics programs, those different kinds of things are
really important as companies are looking at what's happening in
communities and how they're helping build and grow talent. Our companies in
our community are competing every day with people everywhere, and education is
really key. After 23 years of serving in the military my son was in high school
and we were just exposed to the incredible opportunities that were at
Ferris, at Lewis & Clark, and so Jill and I looked at each other and said we
needed to finish my son out in high school, what a better place? Because it
gives options that we haven't been able to experience in other school districts.
The upcoming educational program replacement levy continues the financial
support that helps provide for programs and services that Spokane Public Schools
children and parents use every day, programs that bring recognition to our
community as a great place to live, work, and raise a family. Please remember to
vote and have your ballot postmarked by February 13th.
For more information about Spokane Public Schools or the 2018 levy, please
call Community Relations at 354- 7340, or visit them
online at spokaneschools.org. And please remember to vote by February 13th