With the failing of the levies during the February 2018 special election, the Tahoma School Board has decided to run the Education Programs and Operations (EP&O) levy again on the April 24 ballot. The district would have to make large cuts if the levy fails again.

The cost of the EP&O levy is $1.50 per $1,000 based on home value.

When the levy failed the first time, the district decided to inform the public in a more effective way regarding how much the levy will cost and what it will cover.

The school board has arranged special meetings and discussions that the public are welcome to attend.

Kevin Patterson, director of communications for the Tahoma School District, said one of the biggest misunderstandings from the community was how much the levy would increase their taxes, or if it even would.

“We spent quite a bit of time talking about levy rates and how it changes next year even with the levy passed, the tax rates (are) going to go down in the community and it became clear from some of the comments we got, people were very confused about that,” he said. “Some people told us they thought the levy would add onto what’s already being collected, which was not the case, so we have to be more clear explaining that to people.”

According to Patterson, another concern from the public is how the district will spend the levy money.

“There’s been a lot of social media chatter about ‘Are we spending money efficiently? Why do we need a levy if we’re getting all this money from state money?’ But I think that’s people just not understanding how the new state funding (from McCleary) is working and (that) it still just covers basic education,” Patterson said. “I mean that’s huge, that’s most of what we do, but it still doesn’t cover things that are on these lists for cuts that are funded by the levy or in part. There still needs to be that local levy money for enrichment activities and to supplement teacher pay.”

According to Patterson, last year’s taxes were so high because the Legislature moved up the amount of funding one year while the other levies were still in place.

“There’s just been a lot of confusion about funding, but it seems to me just based on the comments we’re getting the biggest thing is people just didn’t understand that their taxes, even though they went up this year because of the way state funding went into effect before all the old levies dropped off, taxes go down next year, and they just weren’t getting that part,” Patterson said.

Patterson said there is about $5 million in potential cuts within the district, but if the levy does not pass then there will be for sure a $3.5 million cut.

He said the goal would be to make cuts that least affect the kids, but that might not happen when it comes to extracurriculars.

“One of the major things right off the top of my head is extracurricular activities (will be cut), which means sports and other clubs and activities that are funded with levy dollars. Those dollars for the most part are for advisors, staff members who are the advisors to those programs,” he said.

The district might also reduce staff at the central office, Patterson said.

“When the principals and superintendent came together to look at potential areas to present to the board to be cut, they’re trying to divide them into different categories, cuts that were farthest from the classroom that would least affect students, and then all the way up to directly affecting students,” he said. “(They’re) trying to put an emphasis on things that have the least effect on the classroom.”

Rob Morrow, the superintendent of the Tahoma School District, suggested the board make an ad-hoc committee in the case of levy failure.

The committee could include a couple parents whose children are in the Tahoma School District, teachers and a board member or two, said Morrow at the March 20 school board meeting.

“A good timeline for the committee to start their work would be September and then to take probably three months to thoroughly look at you know where we could look at where we could reduce costs across the district and cut the budget and try to do it as thoughtfully as possible because it’s going to be a real deep cut and then take those recommendations to the school board,” Patterson said.

The deadline for cuts would be May 2019 — that’s when reduction notices would have to go out to teachers, Patterson said.

On top of having to make extreme cuts, the school would also lose the Levy Equalization Allocation (LEA) funding.

“(LEA) is a way for the state to try to equalize levy funding in places like here (the Tahoma School District) that don’t have a real diverse tax base,” Patterson said. “We can’t raise as much money locally because we don’t have the assessed evaluation that other communities have like, Bellevue, Kirkland and Seattle, places that have more businesses and industries than we have here, a lot more. So what they do is try to bring all communities up to a standard so the average dollar-per-student that’s coming from levies and with this LEA money is $1,500 per student, and without LEA (we) would be about $200 short of that (per student). So the state supplements dollars to bring us up to that $1,500 per student, but the caveat is we have to pass the levy to get LEA money.”

Patterson said if the levy fails in April, two or three future school years may be affected by it.

“The second half of next school year we would have no levy collection and then all of the 2019-2020, and then half of the 2020-2021 school year,” Patterson said.

The levy would not be able to run again until 2019 because levies can only be run twice in one year, the board said in a previous school board meeting.

If the levy did run again in 2019, that money would not be allocated until 2020, which would still call for budget cuts for the coming years.

“I’m hopeful (the levy will pass), I think we’re doing a better job with that (educating the public) and I think based on some of the responses we’re getting from people in the community is that, yes, they have a better understanding of how the levy works this time,” Patterson said. “I would just like to invite them to come out to our remaining two levy-information nights on March 29 and April 2, and if they have questions, please contact us. We’re happy to answer.”