Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 8, Issue 2, February 2004

Copyright 2004 Seattle Sun. Please feel free to use the article below in your research. Be sure to cite the Seattle Sun as your source.

School levy vote on Feb. 3

By JAMES BUSH

Seattle voters will go to the polls on Feb. 3 to cast ballots on two very different school levies.

Both levies will have to meet two standards to pass: 60 percent "supermajority" support from the voters, and a turnout of 86,000 "yes" voters (calculated using a formula based on the number of total votes in the last general election).

Donna Dwyer-O'Connor, the organizer of a Jan. 21 pro-levies phone banking and sign-making event in Ballard, says she was hoping to attract 20 people, but received confirmations from almost 100. "I don't think that it will take much convincing to get it passed," she says. "But I think getting voters out to the polls is crucial."

Proposition One

Proposition One is the Educational Programs and Operations Levy, a three-year $338 million ballot issue which represents about 23 percent of the district's regular budget. It would cost homeowners an average of $1.18 per thousand dollars of assessed value (for example, the owner of a $300,000 house would pay a school levy tax of $354 per year).

Supporters say the state's narrow definition of basic education means that Proposition One is required to pay for items that few people consider "extras," such as bilingual education, full-day kindergarten programs, at-risk student services, and student activities including athetics, band, and drama.

"Seattle Public Schools gets almost a quarter of its operating resources from the levy, that's the way the state has set it up," says former School Board member Barbara Peterson. "To lose basically one in four dollars for education would be devastating."

New Board member Brita Butler-Wall, who defeated Nancy Waldman in last November's election, says she thinks the turnover on the board (three incumbents failed to win re-election) is a sign of an energized public. "Voters have shown that they're paying attention," Butler-Wall says. "They held the board accountable and I believe they will come out to support these levies."

There is literally no formal opposition to Proposition One; elections regulators couldn't even find anyone to write a voters pamphlet statement in opposition to the levy.

Proposition Two

Proposition Two is a six-year $178 million capital levy to repair and renovate schools, make technology improvements, and upgrade academic and athletic facilities. It would cost homeowners an average of 29 cents per $1,000 of assessed value (or $87 annually for the owner of a $300,000 home). As with most capital levies, this ballot issue is frontloaded, collecting more money in its early years in order to allow projects to get underway.

Unlike the operations levy, Proposition Two has its critics.

Chris Jackins of the Seattle Committee to Save Schools, a Ballard High School alum who opposed the demolition of his alma mater, has since been a vocal critic of district renovations which remove portions of or demolish historic school buildings.

Jackins criticizes the inclusion of improvements for athletic fields which are also used for adult recreation, and questions the need for $11.5 million in internal changes to four high schools. He points out that Nathan Hale High School has successfully instituted an academy (schools within a school) system without physical changes.

He charges that the district has used accounting tricks to hide overruns in past capital programs: for example, Proposition Two would pay for roof repairs for Eastlake's Seward School, yet the school was totally renovated and given numerous additions just a few years ago. It seems likely, he says, that the roof repairs were trimmed from the original renovation to give the appearance that the work was completed within budget. (Jackins does not opposee Proposition One. )

New board members Brita Butler-Wall and Irene Stewart attended the levy rally and have endorsed both proposals. "My daughter went to a middle school that had buckets in the hallway to collect the rain, so I'm absolutely familiar with why we have to pass this capital levy," says Butler-Wall.

Kathy Saxon, a Haller Lake neighborhood resident who has taught at Denny Middle School for the past six years, says she remembers how, as a University of Washington student, standing in Red Square and seeing the impressive buildings that surrounded it made her "feel smart." Her students get a very different impression from their outdated surroundings, she says.