District to place two new levies on Febuary 11 Ballot
Written by Raichel Howell, Former Student on Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Promising changes could be coming to Snohomish schools as two new levies have been approved by the Snohomish School District Board of Directors to be put in the February 11 Ballot.
Proposition One is replacing a previous levy that was passed in 2010 and it provides more than 20 percent of the district’s budget for educational programs and daily operations. The Replacement Maintenance and Operations Levy funds the difference between what the state provides and what it actually costs to educate Snohomish students.
Proposition Two is completely new and would maintain and improve classroom technology to enhance student learning. The Levy for Instructional Technology improvements would allow the District to acquire and install instructional technology equipment and infrastructure which would provide technical support to both teachers and students in classroom settings.
Due to the school districts uniqueness when it comes to taxing for the levy’s, the cost comes directly from the voter’s mouth. By law, the district can collect no more than the fixed dollar amount approved by the voters. The value of the fixed dollar amount is then assessed to create an estimate of what the tax would need to be in order to collect the fixed dollar amount for each year of the levy.
All in all, there are a lot of words involved, but not so many numbers as the proposed estimated local levy rates come in for Proposition One at $3.77 for the years 2015 and 2016 before inching up to $3.78 in the year 2017 and finally stopping at $3.79 in the year 2018. The proposed estimated local levy rates are considerably lower for Proposition Two coming in at a mere $0.50 and not changing for its entire four year term.
If these levy’s fail to pass then a lot of things will have to be altered to accommodate the changes that would have to occur with this lack of funding to some of the schools most basic needs.
Proposition One supports curriculum updates and textbook adoptions, student bus transportation, special education, extra-curricular activities such as athletics, clubs, music, and drama. Without this levy many of these things would be greatly decreased or gone all together.
Without Proposition Two district equipment would continue to increase in age and would only be replaced as allowed by general funding and grant resources. Another foreseen problem would be the school’s ability to handle emergency needs as able which would create service delays and limited network security protection.
Both of these levies are important to Snohomish schools and the future of the students within them and can mean the difference between their success and failure.
