By James Robinson

Quilcene School District officials decided in a special session Feb. 23 to return a recently-failed levy question to voters in April’s special election. The original levy proposition failed at the ballot box on Feb. 13.

“One of the things we garnered from the community was that our communication wasn’t clear,” said Ron Moag, superintendent of Quilcene schools. Moag said the district relied largely on web content to send its message, but in a recent community meeting, learned that a more low-tech approach might have helped.

“I talked to a number of folks who said they are not as tech savvy,” Moag said, adding that voters also asked for a more clear, consistent message.

Anne Bessey, a 50-year Quilcene resident and member of the newly-formed ‘YES’ committee, said in an email, “They (the school board) voted to run it with no changes. There was open discussion, with input from the community and recommendations from the YES committee. The thought being it failed because the information wasn’t out there. We didn’t have a YES committee and there was no supporting statement in the voters’ pamphlet – no signs. We dropped the ball. The other side of this – we didn’t think it wouldn’t pass.”

Bessey said Quilcene School District levy questions have failed only one other time in 50 years. That loss, Bessey said, was over curriculum.

The Feb. 13 ballot measure, called the Quilcene School District No. 48 Proposition No. 1 Educational Programs & Operations Levy (EP & O), garnered just 48% of voters’ support, with 51% voting against. There were 809 votes cast. The question failed by 24 votes, Moag said. It was the only school district levy question to fail on the north Olympic Peninsula. Voters approved levy increases for the Brinnon, Chimacum, and Queets/Clearwater school districts.

According to Moag, levy amounts on the April 23 ballot will remain the same as those put to voters in February. If approved, and according to Jefferson County election documents, collections would begin in 2025, with a levy rate of $1.35 per $1,000 in assessed value. That same rate would continue through 2028, with a total of $3.89 million collected over the four years.

“Every district in the state of Washington needs to run one of these levies every so often. It fills the gap that basic education doesn’t fund,” Moag said. “Our preschool is funded by this levy, the garden program. It fills the gap in so many ways. If we didn’t have the levy we would have a very bare-bones kind of educational experience.”

Moag said the current levy expires in December this year, which is why the district is keen to put the question back to voters.

“In essence, were asking voters to approve a 31-cent increase from the current levy rate,” Moag said. He added that having an EP&O levy in place also gives the district access to state forest funds. “In 2023, it provided our district with an extra $700,000 because we had an EP&O in place.”

Sean Hames, co-chair of the YES committee, said levy funds would cover items the state doesn’t currently fund, or underfunds such as special programs and extra-curricular activities.

“A student’s education is so much more than reading, writing, and arithmetic,” Hames said in an email response to The Leader. “This levy provides funding to programs that exist outside of the sandbox that the state provides us to play within,” he said. “There is so much to be learned from athletics, performing arts, culinary arts, a variety of clubs, and other programs and resources that this levy supports.” Hames said he does not believe that limiting youth to participate only in standardized learning is beneficial to students or the community in which they’re raised. He added that providing programs to a student that go beyond state-funded learning only expands opportunities for that student to discover an interest that they may benefit from for the rest of their life.

“We have a really amazing community that has come together and is doing everything in its power to promote this message,” Moag said.

QUILCENE SCHOOL DISTRICT LEVY

DOLLAR ESTIMATED USE

$1.35 per $1,000 in assessed value

$0.56 – Teaching and learning

$0.39 – Extra Curricular: athletic program costs

$0.06 – Transportation, bus drivers, fuel supplies and maintenance

$0.16 – Food services, kitchen support, local foods

$0.11 – Technology, unfunded IT support, student and staff devices

$0.07 – District, unfunded custodial support and maintenance support