FORKS — The Quillayute Valley School District will place two measures on the ballot in a Feb. 2 special election.
In addition to a two-year replacement maintenance and operations levy, the School Board also voted Tuesday to ask voters to approve a bond to pay for replacement of part of the old high school.
The levy is a replacement for the one that is in place through next summer. It requires a 50 percent plus one simple majority to pass.
The $11 million bond would be used — with $7 million in presumed additional state matching funds — to replace the older portion of Forks High School, built in 1925.
It requires a 60 percent super-majority to pass.
Levy
The current levy brings in $570,000 to the district, and the board voted to collect no more than that, Superintendent Diana Reaume said.
The current rate is $1.43 per $1,000 assessed valuation.
Assessed values of property have gone up, so the rate would drop to about $1.16 per $1,000 assessed valuation, Reaume said.
That means the owner of a $200,000 home would still pay about $232 annually in property taxes.
School Board President Bill Rohde said that the levy was especially important in light of the state budgetary issues.
Rohde said the board is waiting to hear whether levy equalization funds — given to property poor districts — would be slashed.
“We already have had to cut next semester’s budget by about $30,000,” Rohde said.
“We have no idea what is coming up.”
The bond is for the same amount as a measure that did not receive voter approval in the November general election.
The tax rate would have been $1.46 per $1,000 assessed valuation. That means the owner of a $200,000 home would have paid $292 more in property taxes.
Rate to go down
But that rate will go down because property assessment valuations have gone up, and the amount of the new rate was not immediately available.
When the bond was defeated in November, it was paired with another proposition for a $4 million bond to build a new school sports stadium.
That bond will not be brought before voters again, Rohde said.
The School Board decided to ask again for approval of the school replacement bond because of the possibility of receiving state funds, he said.
“Also, we know it will cost about $25,000 to $30,000 to run an election. So we didn’t want to have to run one twice, and we need both of these things.”
The state matches funds based on a district’s entire enrollment.
In Forks, that includes the online Insight School of Washington, which more than doubles the enrollment of Quillayute Valley School District.
The Insight enrollment likely will be removed from consideration for state-matching grants in the next Legislative session, Reaume has said.
As portions of the aging high school are rebuilt, the other parts of the building are taken “offline,” Reaume said, so although the building isn’t “officially condemned,” it is not usable for class space.
The bond also would pay for revamping the Forks Middle School heating system and completion of the second phase of replacing the aging school.
Phase 1, which took most of the classrooms out of the oldest part of the building, occurred about five years ago.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
