Nearly all of the Spokane County school districts with measures on the February ballot have multiple issues for voters to decide.
East Valley is one of the outliers. It has submitted a single ballot measure, a four-year educational programs and operations levy.
“The levy is the lifeblood of our district. It’s 17% of our budget,” said Superintendent Brian Talbott. He says the operations levy funds services that parents and businesses in the district consider important and pays most or all of the salaries of the people who provide them.
“In every category, whether it be classified, certificated, administration, we have more employees than what the state allocates and/or funds. The local levy is what is used to enable us to have additional staffing in those key criterion areas that we need,” areas like nursing, counseling and extra curricular activities such as sports and the arts, Talbott said.
“The state funds us for 1.5 nurses for a district with eight buildings and 3,500 kids and we currently have a nurse in each of our buildings,” he said.
Talbott says East Valley has struggled since the state a few years ago shifted more basic education funding to the state and away from local voters. He says his district has lost the ability to collect millions of voter-approved levy money.
“We’re one of the highest poverty-rated school districts in the region and yet we’re unable to collect levy funds that were approved by our voters,” he said.
Though this is East Valley’s only ballot measure this year, its voters approved a capital levy in 2022.
“We were able to put vestibules in each of the buildings so that there is a single point of entrance and that means more secure buildings for our students and staff,” Talbott said.
When that expires, he says the district will put a bond issue on the ballot in 2026.
“Our newest building and, when I say newest, its modernization was in 1998, and so, our facilities are in some real need. For example, Trentwood Elementary, we have to place a new roof on it and that will be to the tune of about $3 million,” he said.
But the bond issue is two years away. This month’s levy comes first. You can read more about it at the district’s website or at the voter’s pamphlet on the Spokane County website. The levy would pass with a simple majority of votes.
