On April 26, 2022 we will once again vote on Sultan School District Levy, actually 2 proposed Levies. These are the same Levies (minus $4 million) that were rejected by the voters on Feb 8, 2022. The April 26 Levy proposals amount to a little over $30 million over a 4 year period. The current School budget, without a Levy, is approximately $30 million each year for approximately 1900 students K-12.
Levies are in ADDITION to your normal property tax for schools. Here in Snohomish County, 63% of your property taxes go to funding schools. Levies are a short term financial fix for an unusual local School issue concerning learning. Levies are not meant to be a continuous normal part of School Budget revenue. For example, the current SSD (Sultan School District) Levy for Tech was to bring our Tech dept up to a more current standard. Levies are for a period of usually 4 to 6 years and then end, meaning they are supposed to have achieved their purpose. To suggest that this Levy is just a continuation of a previous Levy is intellectually dishonest.
Our community is currently trying to recover from the ravages of the Pandemic on jobs, businesses and wages. Now we are facing an inflation period reminiscent of the 1970's and the "Misery Index." Gas is nearly $5 per gallon, almost double since last year. Diesel is even higher, pushing the price of everything from bananas to heating oil much higher. Bidding wars, even here in Sultan, people are getting higher than asking price for their Real Estate, think what that is going to do to next year's Property values? The Citizens of this Community are currently paying nearly $17,000 per student per year to the SSD for their education. How much is enough?
The critical issue in the SSD today is NOT infrastructure, capital investment, more staff, extracurricular, health service or Technology. The real problem today is poor academic performance as evidenced by the test data collected by OSPI (Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction) report card. Sultan High School students tested in the fall of 2021, only 12.4% met math standards. Even considering the Pandemic and the Tech outlay, this is very concerning. Our Elementary and Middle school numbers are similar. These proposed Levies do nothing to address these issues.
As for the Football field, it is currently being turfed. The Board is financing it with a Bank loan just like we did for the Track a few years ago. We have also applied for a grant which may pay for about half the cost of this project. The Transportation Facility project is scheduled to go out to bid in June of this year. Asking for Levy money before we can know the cost is not good business ethics. Because of inflation and other issues, the new low bid may exceed the cost of the rejected low bid of last summer even with the cost cutting. In reviewing the previous Bid some savings have been discovered. For example, instead of a custom building, a pre-engineered building will save about $800,000. How was this missed the first time around?
These Levies, and remember Levies are for Learning, seem to be aimed at everything except that which is the paramount duty of the School District, reading writing and arithmetic. This is a spending problem, not a funding problem.
There is NO LEVY REQUIREMENT to receive the State Matching Funds for the TRANSPORTATION FACILITY.
This levy appears to be asking the voter for money before costs can be reasonably be determined.
We need to look at the cost per student relative to the cost of maintenance of our facilities.
Is this only the first of several levies or bonds requests to come?
McCleary and Fully Funded schools.
Year end budget surpluses
Have we, in earnest, explored other options?
Do we have an ethical bidding system?
$17,000 per student/yr for a performance achievement of 11.4%
Levy is NOT REQUIRED for funding the Transportation Facility
