The Cape Flattery School District will ask district voters to approve a new maintenance and operations levy while the Sequim School District is asking voters to allow it to issue more than $154 million in general obligation bonds in the April 22 special election.
The two measures are the only issues on the ballots that will be mailed today to registered voters on the North Olympic Peninsula.
The Clallam County auditor will mail a total of 22,680 ballots in the two districts while the Jefferson County auditor will mail 272 ballots to voters living in that county’s portion of the Sequim School District.
The Cape Flattery district is asking for a four-year $375,000 levy — a $25,000 increase from the 2012-14 $350,000 maintenance and operations levy that expires in December.
The levy would be an estimated $2.99 per $1,000 valuation for property owners, extending from 2014-15 through 2017-18.
It would be used to pay for services not entirely covered by state and federal funding, such as school nurse services, building maintenance, technology purchases and updates, school bus transportation, library staff and resources, textbooks and supplies, student counseling services and the food program, district officials said.
While the Cape Flattery levy needs a simple majority to pass, the Sequim School District bond measure requires a 60 percent majority for passage.
Sequim district
District officials are asking voters to permit them to issue $154,325,000 in general obligation bonds that will mature within a maximum term of 20 years and levy annual excess property taxes to repay the bonds.
The bonds would be funded by Sequim School District taxpayers, those living between McDonald Creek on the west and Diamond Point Road and Gardiner on the east, at an estimated $2.24 per $1,000 of assessed property value.
With the expiration of a special bus levy and a 1996 construction bond, district taxpayers would see their overall rates rise from the current $2.14 to $3.85. For the owner of a $250,000 home, that means a property tax increase of approximately $425.
The measure is needed to replace or remodel all its schools, district officials said.
School renovations
That list includes an $87 million overhaul of Sequim High School, $25.5 million for a new elementary school, $17.7 million to renovate Greywolf Elementary School, $8 million to remodel Helen Haller Elementary School and approximately $4.75 million to replace the high school athletic facilities, including all-weather turf on the playing fields and a new stadium.
The bond also includes upgrades to technology infrastructure, demolition of the Sequim Community School, moving the high school choir and band room to the main campus, and modernizing the high school’s central kitchen.
A forum on the bond is set next Tuesday. It will be at 7 p.m. in the high school library, 601 N. Sequim Ave.
For more information, phone the district office at 360-582-3260.
For links to district YouTube videos, visit www.sequim.k12.wa.us/Page/3630.
Ballots can be returned via mail or dropped off at auditor’s offices in the county courthouses or in drop boxes.
In Clallam County, drops boxes are in the District Court 2 lobby, 502. E. Division St., Forks; at the Clallam County Courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles; and at the Sequim Village shopping center, 609 W. Washington St., near the city’s utility payment drop box.
In Jefferson County, a drop box is at the Jefferson County Courthouse, 1820 Jefferson St., Port Townsend.
Mailed ballots must be postmarked no later than April 22, and drop boxes close at 8 p.m. that day.
