PORT TOWNSEND — School district measures in the Chimacum and Port Townsend school districts were passing after initial ballot returns.
Voters in the Chimacum School District on Tuesday were approving Proposition 1, a three-year, $7.275 million replacement educational programs and operations (EP&O) levy to support teaching, school supplies, technology, athletics, buildings and transportation.
“We’re glad we got it over the top,” Chimacum superintendent Dr. Scott Mauk said.
There were 2,757 yes votes, or 68.4 percent, to 1,272 no votes, or 31.6 percent. The tax rate is estimated to be 66 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value for all three years.
Mauk said he was feeling celebratory and relieved, but mostly grateful.
“I’m grateful that people are listening and hearing our message and paying attention to our story,” Mauk said. “That feels really good.”
Mauk said in a school district as small as Chimacum, everything will be touched by levy funding.
“There’s really not a part of the district that levy dollars don’t touch,” Mauk said. “It subsidizes a lot of things that the state is supposed to pay for fully. It subsidizes things like insurance and utilities and staff we need to have, like a nurse, for instance. It also allows us to keep doing really cool things like music and art. It allows us to have smaller class sizes.”
The levy failing would mean a noticeable part of the school district budget, Mauk said.
“We would probably have to downsize across the system,” he said.
Also, if it failed, the school district would be looking ahead to April’s election, to bring the measure before the voters again.
“We would have class sizes go up by five or six,” Mauk said. “Those are the kinds of calculations. Honestly, I shudder to think about it because it’s just a lot to process.”
Voters in the Port Townsend School District were approving both Proposition 1 and Proposition 2.
“We’re just so grateful that the voters support education,” Superintendent Dr. Linda Rosenbury said. “I think it’s a testament to the great work our educators are doing every day with students. Our community sees that we’re helping children be known, supported and engaged and graduate with the skills to thrive in the world and change it for the better.”
Proposition 1 is a three-year, $12.9 million replacement EP&O levy. Voters were passing it with 4,473 yes votes, or 78.2 percent, to 1,245 no votes, or 21.8 percent.
The tax rate is estimated to be 82 cents per $1,000 in the first two years and 81 cents per $1,000 in the final year.
“Our EP&O levy supports so many important programs such as art, music, athletics and our unique maritime and place-based learning initiatives,” Rosenbury said.
The levy also can support nutrition and wellness, special education and extracurricular and co-curricular activities.
Rosenbury said Proposition 1 passing means the district can have a fully funded multilingual learner specialist.
“We have multilingual learners across all grade levels, including students who have been in the country for a while and those who are brand new to the country and just learning English,” Rosenbury said.
The specialist works with teachers across all four Port Townsend schools to promote language access for students in classrooms, Rosenbury said.
Proposition 2 is a three-year, $7.1 million replacement capital levy. The levy will fund studies for seismic retrofits at Port Townsend High School (PTHS). It will fund improvements to disability access at the high school and Blue Heron Middle school. Modernization and remodeling at PTHS and OCEAN school will be funded as well.
Voters were passing the measure with 4,418 yes votes, or 77.3 percent, to 1,295 votes, or 22.7 percent.
The tax rate is estimated to be 45 cents per $1,000 for all three years.
“A huge component of our capital levy was providing the remaining funds for removal of the Lincoln building,” Rosenbury said. “The Lincoln building is the original school in Port Townsend. It sits on top of the hill. It was beautiful in its day but has now become a vacant building.”
The school district passed a levy and collected $500,000 for the demolition of the Lincoln building in 2012, but community efforts to save the building put the project on pause, Rosenbury said.
“We explored options for renovations and reuse, but it just did not pencil out.” Rosenbury said.
The school currently is pursuing permits for the demolition, Rosenbury said. The school board has contracted with TCF Architecture to consider facility upgrades at the high school, she added.
“They’ve been meeting with students, parents, community members and staff all year to explore facility upgrades at the campus,” Rosenbury said. “We will be exploring some possible concepts with the community in April.”
With uncertainty of federal funding, it’s more important to have local support, Rosenbury said.
“Our school board and district leaders and advocates are looking for more funding from the state level, and we’re optimistic that we will see funding that is closer to the rate of inflation,” she said.
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@sequimgazette.com.
