Two school districts in Grays Harbor County hope to secure supplemental funding through proposed property tax levies on November’s general election ballot.

On Nov. 8, North Beach School District and McCleary School District will ask voters in their respective districts — and for their respective purposes — to approve levies for the replacement of other expiring funds.

Levy taxes fund the school district expenses state and federal funds don’t cover.

North Beach

North Beach School District’s current bond, which voters adopted in 2001 and drew about $0.49 of taxes for every thousand dollars of property value, will expire at the end of 2022. In February, voters shot down a proposed $110 million bond that would’ve hiked the bond tax rate by $1.26.

On the same ballot, voters approved the Educational Programs and Operations levy at a rate of $1.06. Due to the state’s cap on levy collections, the district only collects $0.81 per thousand.

Those two taxes make up the district’s total property tax collection.

The measure before voters this fall is a Capital Projects levy aimed to replace money from the expiring bond, according to Shelese McConnell, business manager at North Beach School District.

McConnell said the proposed levy won’t increase property taxes for the district.

If approved, the levy will garner about $0.44 per thousand dollars of property, which equates to between $1.1 million to $1.4 million per year for the district over the next six years, although actual rates vary slightly because property taxes are based on assessed values.

“Instead of going out for a bond, we’re going out for a capital projects levy, which is a really, really scaled down version of a bond,” McConnell said. “A capital projects levy is really just for minor structural needs.”

The district can’t use money from the capital projects levy toward school programs, staff salaries or anything “school enrichment” related, McConnell said, only facilities and building upgrades.

If the levy passes, those upgrades will likely include a new roof for the middle school, for which there is a “dire need,” according to McConnell, and moving or updating the district’s athletic fields, which are built on unstable ground and flood consistently.

Flooding has rendered the field consistently unsuitable for the North Beach High School baseball team, McConnell said.

McCleary

The McCleary School District is proposing a replacement of its current Education Programs and Operations levy, which expires at the end of 2022. If approved, the levy won’t raise property taxes for those in the district, according to Tiki Willey, business manager at McCleary School District.

Voters saw the same levy on February’s ballot, when they voted against it. School districts aren’t allowed to propose the same levy to voters more than twice.

Susan Zetty, superintendent of the McCleary district, told The Daily World she’s received positive feedback from the community on the current levy proposal.

The estimated rate is $2.50 per thousand dollars of property, based on assessed values, amounting to $875,000 per year over the next two years — Willey said that’s 14.5% of the district’s annual budget.

McCleary’s Pre-K-8 school provides students free lunch and free participation in athletics, programs both reliant on levy funds, according to Zetty and Willey. The school’s music program, which was absent during the pandemic, Zetty said, has returned and needs levy funds to operate.

The levy ensures a better-resourced preschool, a program separate from the state-funded Transitional Kindergarten present in some districts.

Staffing and special education also eat up large portions of the levy funds.

McCleary’s students cost the district even after they’ve left the school, Willey said. A chunk of the district’s levy funding goes to “non-high” payments, the cost McCleary pays for its students to attend a high school outside the district — usually in Elma — and use the levy-funded services at those schools.

Those costs range from $140,000 to $225,000 per year, according to Willey. Roughly that same amount of money is on the line for McCleary in state levy equalization funds.

The state awards levy equalization funds to districts where property tax levies might not generate enough to meet the district’s needs, areas where property values are lower generally, than other property-rich areas. That’s the case in McCleary — should the levy pass, the district will receive an additional $200,000 in equalization funds.

However, if the levy fails, the district will not only miss out on 14.5% of their yearly budget, but the additional funds as well.

McCleary School District will host a levy informational session Monday, Oct. 24 from 6:30-7:30 p.m. via Zoom. The link will be posted to the district’s website.

Contact reporter Clayton Franke at 406-552-3917 or clayton.franke@thedailyworld.com.