The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

The Naselle/Grays River Valley School District will have a replacement maintenance and operations levy on the ballot coming out on January 23.

The ballots are due on February 10, and the levy requires a simple majority to pass.

“It’s kind of a misnomer that they call it a maintenance and operations levy,” said district Superintendent Lisa Nelson. “To me that implies painting and window washing, but it’s really maintenance of existing programs. Some districts have begun to change the language and are calling it a program levy.”

The district is asking for $715,000 per year, for a three year period beginning in 2016, when the current levy ends. Because there is a larger base of assessed value, according to Nelson, the replacement levy will cost taxpayers less per $100,000 assessed home value than in previous years.

“It’s a bridge builder between what is needed to run the school,” Nelson said, “and what the state funds. In 1977, the state funded almost 99 percent of what was needed for staffing. Now it’s down to something like 70-80 percent. If it wasn’t for these levies, that's a big piece of the pie to not get.

“If you don’t pass a levy,” she continued, “you have to look at what do you absolutely have to keep to graduate a student. What’s everything else? Everything else is what makes these students whole. It’s the arts and the athletics.”

The primary focus for levy dollars, according to Nelson, is anything that is not required for a diploma. This includes athletics, drama, music classes, coaches, advisers, coaches and a full time counselor. It helps pay for food service. The district has added robotics to their science and technology programs. Some of the levy dollars will go towards fuel and transportation and maintenance to their buildings and grounds. It will also pay for all day kindergarten.

“The state only funds half day kindergarten,” Nelson said. “We think it’s important for our kids to get an early start.”

According to information from the district:

--The district could ask for as much as $1,092,000, but is requesting $715,000 for the replacement levy, a $20,000 raise since the last levy passed, but a cost that would be covered by a wider tax base.

--The current maintenance and operations levy expires in 2015 and has cost taxpayers $3.06 per $1,000 of their assessed property value. This levy, if it passes with a simple majority, will replace the old one and cost taxpayers just a little less at $3.05 per $1,000 of their assessed property value.