SEQUIM — As taxpayers across the Dungeness Valley engage in a furious debate over the school levy on the Feb. 9 ballot, Richard Seiler is sweating it.
He is the Sequim School District’s lone technology assistant, which means he is the one who set up some 1,000 computers on five campuses, and who diagnoses and repairs their all-too-frequent problems.
Seiler has read the letters to the Peninsula Daily News from Sequim residents dismayed by the proposed levy’s steep increases.
As the all-mail election enters its final days, Seiler hopes to convey a message to voters: Taxes for schools and technology pay off in the form of students who know their way around the modern world.
The Sequim School District’s current levy rate is 77 cents per $1,000 in assessed valuation, so the owner of a $250,000 house is paying $192.50 this year in property tax for things like teacher salaries, textbooks and technology.
The current levy, approved by the voters in 2006, expires at the end of this year.
Levy details
So the Sequim School District Board of Directors put a replacement levy on the ballot — and raised the amount in order to fill the gap left open last year when the state slashed its education funding.
The proposed levy amount for next year, $4.05 million, would mean a taxation rate of 98 cents per thousand; in 2012, the levy amount of $4.9 million would bring that to $1.19; in the final year, the levy will peak at $5.78 million, for a projected rate of $1.40 per $1,000 in assessed property valuation.
“Wow,” wrote Sequim resident Bob Anundson in a recent letter to the PDN.
Those hikes are hard on people who live on fixed incomes, he said, noting that utility rates and sales tax have also gone up in Sequim.
“I have voted for the levy in the past and will again when it resembles some sanity. This levy gets a no from me,” Anundson finished.
Bill Bentley, the Sequim school superintendent, has said that the levy increases are necessary if students here are to have the instruction and tools they need.
Compared to PA
Seiler, for his part, pointed out that Sequim has a slim tech-support staff — he’s it — while the Port Angeles School District has five times as many technicians working on its computer fleet.
The larger district does have five techs, spokeswoman Tina Smith-O’Hara confirmed. It also has 1,500 computers — not so many more than Sequim — and a much higher levy.
The Port Angeles School District’s levy rate last year was $2.38 per $1,000 in assessed valuation, Smith-O’Hara said.
That is already nearly a dollar more than Sequim’s highest rate would be in 2013 — if voters approve the replacement levy.
Seiler added that the district has been using hand-me-down computers from the state Department of Corrections, and said these machines often require considerable work and time before they’re ready for student use. And then they’re outdated within a few years.
At the same time, Seiler believes computer proficiency cannot be considered optional for today’s students.
Seeing young children discover Internet resources — seeing them master research skills — affirms Seiler’s belief in technology’s role in a well-rounded education.
When a second-grader running Britanica Online turns to him to explain climate change’s effects on polar bears, that is one clear illustration, he said.
Significant portion
Technology funding is a significant portion of the proposed levy, according to Sequim School District business manager Brian Lewis.
In the 2010-11 school year, $330,000 is earmarked for computers, software and related expenses, including Seiler’s salary of $21.12 per hour.
In 2011-12, $277,000 in levy funds would be spent on technology; in 2012-13 the levy would fund $380,000, Lewis said.
These dollars would go into much-needed new computers, machines that won’t need as much work and that will last longer, he added.
Patra Boots, the district’s director of technology, added that she seeks to economize at every turn by searching for basic hardware and software at the lowest prices, and by purchasing only the necessities.
“We don’t chase the latest, greatest, cutting-edge stuff,” she said.
“You get a big bang for your buck in the Sequim School District.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@ peninsuladailynews.com.
