Spokane’s growing Central Valley School District has had a busy last decade.
Thanks to bond issues approved by voters in 2015 and 2018, the district has built a third high school, (Ridgeline), a new middle school, (Selkirk), a few other new facilities (Mica Peak High School and the CV Early and Virtual Learning Centers) and several renovated schools.
Superintendent John Parker thought it might be time to consider another bond issue, so the district did some deep study last year of its existing facilities to assess the needs. He says the school board and a 25-member citizens committee analyzed the information and came to one conclusion.
“We basically determined that a bond was not in the cards,” Parker said. “Our community has passed two bond measures already. We’re still collecting on those. We did not feel that our community had the appetite for a 20-year bond, but rather we still need to address some of the aging facilities’ needs in our school district.”
Parker said district officials decided to fund projects through use of a capital property tax levy.
“Capital levies are typically for four-to-six years. The biggest thing with those is we collect the money and you can only use it as you collect it. A bond measure is typically 20 years and those bonds are sold and you can use a lot of that money up front,” he said.
Bond issues are usually applied to major projects, such as new schools and big renovations. Parker says the district’s needs right now are smaller.
“What we’re proposing are things like HVACs, roofs, playgrounds, stadium lights, and most importantly, a safety vestibule entrance in over eight of our schools,” he said.
About half of the proposed $47 million capital levy would pay for those types of improvements. The other half would modernize technology in the classrooms over a six-year period.
“Because we are using technology in very creative ways, ways that I like to say are ‘we turn one teacher into three,’ we needed to update our technology” to keep the district current over the next six years, the length of the levy. Parker says the levy asks people for more property taxes, but it wouldn’t put the district further into debt.
“We’re trying to set up a really solid, long-term, sustainable tax rate so if we have to go out for a bond a few years down the road, we’re trying to do everything we can to keep the tax rate the same, even though we go out with a new bond measure to voters,” he said.
The district is also proposing a three-year educational operations levy to replace an expiring levy. That money would supplement the basic education money the state sends to Central Valley and allows the district to provide additional health, mental health, special education and extracurricular programs.
You can read more about the Central Valley levies at the district’s website or at the voters’ pamphlet on the Spokane County website.
