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NEWPORT — No extracurricular programs, such as athletics or band. Fewer staff including teachers, leading to larger class sizes. Limited transportation, technology and other resources for students.
This is what will happen at the Newport School District if its Educational Programs and Operations levy is not renewed by voters in February, Newport Superintendent Dave Smith said.
“Everything on that list goes away, so you can imagine what it would be like,” Smith said. “It would be a different district.”
Known as Maintenance and Operations levies until about 2023, EPO levies are renewed by Washington school districts after a period of up to four years and fund programs, staff and other areas that are underfunded or not funded at all by the state. As previously reported by The Miner, all three school districts in Pend Oreille County — Newport, Cusick and Selkirk — are proposing renewals of their three-year EPO levies this election cycle.
“You add up all those categories and then the money that the state funds, we’re not funded at 100%,” Newport business manager Debra Buttrey said.
Estimated at a rate of $1.45 per $1,000 in assessed property value, Newport’s EPO levy will collect a total amount of $8.8 million over the next three years if passed. The current levy is in the final year of a three-year $6.7 million EPO levy, whose rate was estimated at $1.50 per $1,000.
As the district is proposing a $46.3 million bond alongside the levy, the Newport School District Board voted to decrease the estimated rate from $1.50 to $1.45 per $1,000. The total amount for collection is increasing by $2.1 million, which Buttrey attributes to inflation. Assessed property valuation increases allowed the rate decrease; As of this year, assessed property valuation in the Newport School District is $1.54 billion — 69% more than in 2019.
For a property with an assessed valuation of $300,000, the levy’s annual cost will be about $36.25 a month, or $425 a year, according to the district.
“If we had extra money, we didn’t ask for as much money this time in certain categories,” Buttrey said. “Just trying to be sure that we’re good stewards of the dollar.”
The top category funded by Newport’s EPO levy is staffing.
Counselors, a student engagement coordinator and deans of students at Stratton Elementary and Sadie Halstead Middle School — positions that, according to the district, support students’ emo- tional and physical safety — are funded by just over a quarter of the levy. This year, the district is proposing the addition of three roaming substitutes to student support staff, which Buttrey said would address a shortage and cover all instructor time off throughout the year.
About the same amount funds other staff: four elementary teachers, one K-4 science, technology engineering, arts and mathematics teacher, one gifted and talented teacher, school librarians and staff in the district’s K-12 Highly Capable Program. This year’s proposal includes an additional teacher at the primary grade levels, Buttrey said.
A school resource officer and nurses, as well as security cameras, are funded by 8% of the levy.
“We’ve prioritized smaller class sizes in the elementary, … Because research shows you the smaller the classroom size, the more learning that takes place,” Smith said.
All extracurricular programs at the district, as well as related transportation, equipment, equipment repairs and replacements, salaries, benefits and competition officials, are funded by just under a quarter of the levy. The KUBS F.M. Radio Station and all broadcasting, livestreaming and radio personnel are funded by another 1%.
Within the remaining quarter, 1% provides Chromebook laptops and software to each student; 4% fills the gap in transportation funding between state reimbursed and actual costs; and 9% supports facility maintenance, kitchen equipment upgrades and the Pend Oreille River School facility as well as an additional proposed portable for Home Link.
“We have a high school alternative program that has way more kids than we can facilitate,” Smith said. “So we need more space.”
EPO levies fund the same items they did when they were known as Maintenance and Operations levies, Smith said.
Neither levy solely funded maintenance. Even if they did, Buttrey said the district could never have maintained Newport High School to a point where it did not need the renovations from the proposed bond. This is because of changes in technology and instruction over time.
“That’s why we don’t have the little square classrooms anymore with the wood stove in the corner, and everybody brings in a chunk of wood,” Buttrey said. “Things change.”
Selkirk is renewing its EPO levy at a rate of $1.58 per $1,000 in assessed property value, collecting $2.48 million over the next three years. Meanwhile, Cusick is renewing its EPO levy to collect $1.65 million at a rate per $1,000 of $1.02 in 2027, $1.01 in 2028 and $1 in 2029.
Selkirk’s EPO levy funds all extracurricular programs, a third of student support and staffing, a third of food service and a quarter of maintenance, custodial, utilities and safety. Besides extracurricular activities, counseling, food service, maintenance, custodial, safety and security, Cusick’s EPO levy funds curriculum, transportation, technology and programs such as career and technical education, driver’s education and accelerated learning.
“It’s not a wish list,” Smith said of Newport’s levy. “It is what is needed to make this district work.”
