School Board: Time to consider a capital levy

DAYTON–The School Board heard a broad discussion on initiating a capital levy; and reviewed Washington Standards-Based Superintendent Framework and specific goals during the meeting on September 6.

Superintendent Rich Stewart began with a chart that showed taxpayers have been paying the lowest rate per $1000 of assessed property value from 2021-23. Under consideration is a four-year capital levy of $0.50 which would total $1.7 million; a $1.00 totaling $3.4 million; and $1.50 which would bring $5.1 million. This is based on 2% assessed value growth over those years. Stewart recommended the $1.00 levy and acknowledged the Board requested a list of prioritized capital improvements. Director Grant Griffin affirmed a list will help in determine the level of need.

Jeff McCowen thought that the middle $1.00 rate is a good place to start and said, “We enlisted the help of McKinstry and got a $5 million grant…It’s important for folks to understand that some of our facilities and things we’ll be looking at and assessing, we’re dealing with equipment that is so antiquated that to utilize the $5 million of free money, we had to put up $500,000 just to hook up the new stuff.” He continued to say that the middle $1.00 rate would be a good starting point.

Board member Jim Sueuga added that the work needs to get done. Stewart said that grant funding will also be pursued to subsidize the levy.

Stewart presented the State standard for superintendents saying he will go through each area and provide a self-assessment to be reviewed with the Board with concrete ways to improve and then later determine if progress is made.

The other document Stewart provided was a monthly calendar of activities for a whole year. The activities were broken down into those that are fiscal and those that are program based with the purpose of verifying, monitoring, initiating and later completing them. For the first few months the fiscal goals were to verify and monitor enrollment and for programs was to verify new employee orientation and then later monitor evaluations. Also, to initiate school improvement plans for the elementary and secondary schools.

Stewart told the Board he has asked Secondary Principal Guin Joyce to create a data dashboard to track student progress towards graduation. There will be several data points and will be available on the district website once complete.