Superintendent informs Council of upcoming levy

During Monday's session of Town Council, Wahkiakum School District Superintendent Ralph Watkins discussed an upcoming tax levy which renewal will strongly affect the schools and will be on a special election ballot Feb. 11, 2026. Coming from Alaska, Watkins noted this is his first experience with a levy.

"In Alaska, our school district had a really strong relationship with our municipality," said Watkins. "One of my goals is to make sure that I foster that same type of relationship with our municipality. In Alaska, municipalities have a responsibility of contributing to the school's budget. They have a statutory mandated minimum amount of money and a maximum amount of money that they can contribute, so the relationship was formed through a legislative process. For us, there is no such mandate, but it only makes sense that the school district would try and form a strong working relationship with our municipality."

Watkins informed Council they were the first group he has spoken to and he still has "several speaking engagements between now and election time."

Expressing a slight concern, Watkins said, "What I've noticed over the past few levies from 2014 to the most recent one in 2022, the support for the levies - the margin for approval - has diminished greatly. In 2014, we had a 68 percent approval for the levy and, in 2022, it was 51 percent...The trend is, as voter turnout increases, the passing percentage decreases, which tells me there's a gap that we're missing. I want to try to figure out where that gap is and how to ameliorate that before we get to a place where passing the levy becomes more challenging."

Watkins informed Council the levy "accounts for 20 percent of the total budget," as the state funds 75 percent and another 5 percent comes from federal dollars. "Our levy pays for extra-curricular activities," said Watkins. "It pays for some of our teachers, our technology, our curriculum, our sports programs, [and] some of our facilities and maintenance, and so it's really important to how we function as a school."

His goal to keep the levy rate the same as it has been over the past three levies, Watkins presented a number of $997,000. "My core belief is that my kids and all kids shouldn't suffer academically, opportunity wise, just because they go to a rural school," said Watkins. "I don't want to be caught up in all the minutia of all the other noise around it. I want to make a clear statement that these dollars are tied to our students and are vital to ensuring that we can continue to offer a quality education for our students. Our motto is quality education for every student every day, and that doesn't happen in a vacuum. That happens with the support of our teachers, our parents, our community members, those who have students in school and those who don't."

Recognizing over 60 percent of the population is over the age of 55 and, as a result, may not have kids of their own attending school in Wahkiakum, Watkins introduced a "Pay it Forward" flyer that read, "Someone helped fund your education. Now it's your turn to support our students."

Addressing Council, Watkins said, "Sometimes there are landmines that you don't know," expressing his appreciation for being able to gather Council's input and insight on the matter.