By Mari Kanagy, Reporter
In early 2018, local voters will cast their ballots for or against the Educational Programs and Operations (EP&O) levy supporting VISD.
The EP&O levy is run by the school district every four years. The revenue goes to support educational programs and operations within the district.
Levies run by schools are funded through property taxes. The State Legislature sets the specific percentage of the overall district budget that the levy can monetarily supply. It is then submitted to the county to be placed on the ballot for island residents.
The EP&O levy will be in the Special Elections ballot on Feb. 13, 2018.
The Maintenance and Operations (M&O) levy is currently in place, and will run through December 2018. This past June, House Bill 2242 eliminated the M&O levy and replaced it with the EP&O levy.
The EP&O levy, if passed, will run from January 2019 through December 2022. The four-year total levy budget is $21,516,595, making up 19.9 percent of the school district’s total operating budget.
“Because the state is not fully funding basic education, we have to run these levies to fill in the funding gaps the state doesn’t give to us,” said Matt Sullivan, Executive Director of Business and Operations. “It mainly goes to offset costs of teacher salaries, benefits [and] staffing.”
Levy money also goes to other underfunded areas, including special education and AP classes, as well as co-curriculars such as arts and music.
“The board pulls together information about what we need and what we think we can ask for without spending people’s money [unnecessarily],” school board chair Zabette Macomber said. “We try to make a good argument for why we need the money, and what we need it for.”
The district will rely more heavily on funding from the levy due to the McCleary decision, a 2012 Washington Supreme Court ruling that demanded that the State Legislature come up with a plan to fully fund public education for the 2017-18 school year.
“Because of the McCleary decision, the state is now funding school districts in a different way,” Macomber said. “[The state is still] going to tax districts, but [they will] distribute the income that they get from that taxation [differently].”
Though state education taxes will likely be raised, Vashon will not benefit from that increase because the money will go to districts with lower funding than VISD.
“The big idea of McCleary was about equity,” Superintendent Michael Soltman said. “School districts … that couldn’t raise enough levy money couldn’t be as competitive in terms of programing as we are, where we have been able to raise levies.”
Part of Soltman’s role in creating and implementing the levy is working with a citizens’ committee to ensure that the levy gets passed. The school district itself is not allowed to campaign for levies, so citizens’ committees are formed to run and fund the campaign.
“Vashon is unique in terms of the quality of the programs and the quality of education experiences we can provide, because we actually have very good levy support,” Soltman said.
Levies run by VISD tend to pass by a margin of 70 to 75 percent, with about 50 percent voter turnout.
