Arlington and Darrington seek school levies

Published 11:16 pm Saturday, February 9, 2008

Arlington and Darrington school districts have a lot on the line on the Feb. 19 ballot.

Both are running four-year maintenance and operation levies that would account for nearly $1 of every $5 they spend each year to run the schools. The levies would replace existing ones that are expiring.

School districts turn to voters every one to four years to pass levies, which provide funding for such things as additional teachers and aides, salary increases, athletics and other extracurricular programs, textbooks, transportation and building maintenance.

The all-mail election is new for both districts. So is a new election law passed by voters in November that eases the requirement to pass a levy from 60 percent to a simple majority.

Neither district’s proposal faced organized opposition.

Here’s a brief look at the levy measures:

Arlington

The four-year levy request would pay for all co-curricular activities such as music, drama and clubs, and 90 percent of sports costs, 60 percent of technology improvements and 30 percent of transportation services. It also contributes to curriculum and textbook costs and teacher training. Roughly half the money goes into staffing.

If voters approve the levy, the district will collect amounts that will ramp up each year from $9.71 million in 2009 to $11.94 million in 2012.

Despite the incrementally larger collection amounts, the levy rate is projected to drop over those four years from $2.20 per $1,000 of assessed value in 2009 to $2.03 in 2012. That would cost the owner of a $300,000 home between $660 and $609 a year.

Heather Brown is president of the Haller Middle School PTSA and serves on a volunteer levy committee. She vividly remembers four years ago when the levy failed on its first attempt. By state law, districts are given two chances within a year to pass levies and bonds.

“I was concerned that so many of the programs and support staff in my kids’ schools could be cut,” she said. “I didn’t realize how important a levy was until then.”

Darrington

Darrington has two measures on the ballot.

Prop. 1 is its maintenance and operations levy that would generate $1.02 million in 2009 and $1.27 million in 2012.

Proposed levy rates would vary between $2.91 per $1,000 in 2009 to $2.96 per in the final year of the levy. That would range from $582 to $592 a year on a $200,000 home.

“It’s very important,” said Julie Kuntz, a Darrington School Board member who serves on the levy committee. “It’s 18 to 20 percent of the budget.”

Prop. 2 is a two-year transportation levy.

It would raise $110,000 a year for each of the next two years to buy two new buses. Four of the district’s buses are more than 20 years old.

Levy rates would be 30 cents per $1,000 in the first year and 28 cents the second year on a $300,000 home.

That would cost $60 the first year and $56 in the second year.

The Darrington district includes parts of Snohomish and Skagit counties. Elections on both sides of the county line are by mail-in ballots.

Voters who do not wish to participate in the presidential primary and declare a party preference, can still vote in the levy election and have their ballot counted.

Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or e-mail stevick@heraldnet.com.