The Freeman School District is one of more than a dozen Spokane County districts with multiple measures on the February 13 ballot.
Superintendent Randy Russell says the district hopes to replace two expiring levies.
The district’s new capital levy would raise about $5 million over three years, money Russell says would be routed to safety, technology and infrastructure improvements.
“We just had to do a HVAC upgrade at the middle school. That was $2 million and I’m glad we did it when we did it, because if we did it now, it costs us $3 million,” he said.
“Being able to have the capital project dollars to help us with those real need things around maintenance of the buildings, taking care of the roofs and the systems, it’s critical because that stuff is just exponentially going up in price.”
The second levy, for day-to-day operations, would raise about $6 million over three years for expenses that aren’t covered by the state’s basic education allotment, things such as extracurricular activities. But he says it also pays for services that aren’t part of the direct education experience, such as custodians and nurses.
“We have a [sheriff’s] deputy, school resource officer, that is here. He works with the school district throughout the course of the year. He does patrol in the summer. The county pays half of his salary and benefits. We pay half of his salary and benefits,” Russell said.
It also pays for district-related expenses for which the costs have soared.
“Our property insurance went up 45% last year. That’s a big lift. It’s probably going to go up again 25%-30% next year. That’s a lot of money and all of our insurance is paid for out of the levy,” Russell said.
Both levies will pass with 50% +1 vote support. Russell says one of the selling points is that voters would pay the same tax rate as they did with the levies they approved in 2018 and 2021.
“I want to be very respectful of the people that live in Freeman and the taxes that they’re paying. I know that property taxes are not cheaper than they were five years ago. That’s a big reason why we’ve asked for the same tax rate than we’ve as we have the last two elections for both the levy and capital projects levy,” he said.
Many of the superintendents running measures on the February ballot say they’re spending more time and resources reaching out to voters to share their levy messages. Freeman confirmed that his district is in the same mode.
“We have a little over four thousand registered voters. Trying to connect with that group of people that are very supportive of Freeman but don’t have any kids or grandkids here, that means we need to do a much better job of communicating. We started about a month earlier this year than we ever have the whole time I’ve been a superintendent,” Russell said.
Ballots have been mailed. They’re due back to the elections office or ballot drop boxes by 8 pm on February 13 or they must be postmarked by that day.
