Two Seattle faculty levies would pay for teaching programs, upgrades to Memorial Stadium
Funding for programs that serve some of Seattle’s most vulnerable students and funding modernization of schools and athletic fields, including Memorial Stadium, are on the ballot in the Feb. 8 special election.
Seattle Public Schools is urging voters to renew the education programs and operating levy, as well as the buildings, technology, and academic/sports capital levies.
School districts in Washington depend on levies or bonds to supplement the cost of educational programs, staffing, and building maintenance. The dues would earn Seattle Public Schools millions of dollars for special education and English learning programs, as well as long-awaited Memorial Stadium upgrades.
If approved, the operating levy would raise $646.8 million over three years and the capital levy would raise $783 million over six years. Both polls require 50% plus one vote to pass.
Why does SPS need so much to fund basic operations? “The state simply doesn’t consider the need to help districts maintain or construct buildings or develop technology,” said JoLynn Berge, deputy treasurer.
The school funding formula has not kept pace with changes in education over the years, Berge said. In special education, for example, there are a number of different services that school districts offer today that didn’t exist 40 years ago.
But the renewal of the levies also means an increase in wealth taxes, critics say. Jeff Heckathorn, who runs a website that analyzes school funding data, wrote the opposite explanation for many of the region’s school levies in the Feb. 8 vote, including Seattle’s levy.
“Almost all counties are trying to just focus on how our property tax rates will remain nearly unchanged, as if that would or will do us any favors,” Heckathorn’s statement said. “A flat tax rate multiplied by skyrocketing appraised home values equates to skyrocketing dollar taxes (paid by homeowners and renters in their rents).”
If the operating tax is approved, homeowners would pay 74 cents per $1,000 of appraised value in 2023; the levy would rise to 75 cents for the next two years. The capital levy, if passed by voters, would cost 47 cents per $1,000 of appraised value in 2023 and decline over the next five years, bringing the tax down to 37 cents per $1,000 by 2028.
The owner of a $674,000 home — the median home value in Seattle in 2021, according to the King County Assessor’s Office — would pay $499 in operating tax and $317 in capital levy in 2023.
Seattle, like most other districts in Washington, usually has no problem enforcing taxes. The last time a school levy failed in Seattle was in the 1970s, Berge said. “It flooded the district.”
The program and operating fee
For Seattle schools, the majority of operating expenses go to special education programs and English language learners, Berge said. About $90 million each year goes to the district’s Special Education Services and about $20 million to its English Learner Services to supplement programs.
The state funds about 45% of the staff needed for special education programs, Berge said, and the rest comes from tax revenue. If the levy is not approved, “we will have to restructure significantly,” she said. “I hope I never have to find out.”
Over the past 20 years, the community’s demands for public education have gone beyond mere academics, Berge said. School districts feed students, provide mental health services, and provide before and after school care.
“The perception of what K-12 is supposed to do has changed, and our funding hasn’t changed enough to do all the things that we need to do when there aren’t other loopholes in the system,” Berge said.
The pandemic has created a national mental health crisis, and recently students in Seattle have called for more mental health resources and services. Some special education funding includes mental health services, Berge said, but if there were more robust social and emotional programming and staffing in schools, cities and counties wouldn’t have to shoulder the burden.
The state is funding a psychologist for the entire district, Berge said. The district uses royalty funds to pay for 70 psychologists as part of the special education program. “There’s a very big disparity” when it comes to what state funding needs versus what school districts need, she said.
Funds from operating taxes are also used to hire teachers, carers and nurses. The state gives Seattle Schools funding for nine nurses and the district is hiring nearly 70, Berge said. The county needs about 400 caretakers for its 106 schools, but the state provides only half of them.
The capital levy
One of the big items the capital levy would fund is upgrades to Memorial Stadium, the facility at Seattle Center where many students attend graduation ceremonies or play soccer. Approximately $66 million in upgrades are proposed, including new grandstands, LED lights and lawns.
The grandstands were built in the 1940s and the district believes they are at the end of their useful life. In his opposing statement on the ballot, Heckathorn argues that Memorial Stadium should remain as it is because it was built as a tribute to World War II veterans.
Several other high schools in the district are also receiving athletic field upgrades: Rainier Beach, Ingraham, Ballard, West Seattle, and Lincoln.
The capital levy will also fund technology. Seattle Schools have had to pour more dollars into technology since students and teachers have been forced to learn remotely, Berge said. The district had to source laptops or tablets for each student, which caused technology costs to skyrocket. About $270 million in royalties will fund technology, more than $100 million more than was used in 2019.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the district has had to purchase around 40,000 devices, Berge said. And that comes with additional costs — repairing or replacing equipment, as well as providing teachers and classroom computers, technology support, hardware and software applications, and cybersecurity monitoring systems.
The capital levy would also fund playground and HVAC system updates, and repair windows, roofs, plumbing, fire alarms and other electrical systems in schools.