Woodland Public Schools is seeking voter approval to replace an expiring property tax levy intended to make up gaps in funding that are still a reality following a legislative “fix” made in 2017.
The district has put a replacement educational programs and operations levy on the February special election ballot. If approved, the levy would raise $5.4 million in the first year, $5.75 million in the second and $6.1 million in the third, according to the ballot proposition. The levy was estimated at a rate of $2.37 per $1,000 of assessed valuation paid in 2021 and $2.36 per $1,000 in the two subsequent years, which the district stated was about the same as the current levy rate paid on property taxes this year.
Information from the district states the levy makes up a 12 percent gap in operations funding between what is provided for by the state and what the district needs to run at adequate levels. Woodland Public Schools Superintendent Michael Green said that the levy is needed to make up for deficiencies in the state’s prototypical school model, which is used to allocate funding for public K-12 education.
Green said state funding is lacking in areas like school maintenance, custodial services and school nursing. The district said that currently it only receives state funds at less than one full-time nurse. Other beneficiaries of levy replacement are special education as well as the ability to offer advanced placement courses, among others, he explained.
Green said the prototypical school model didn’t adequately fund any district in the state, with Woodland as no exception.
“Certainly there are some gross inequities in the (school funding) fix that adversely impact Woodland by comparison to many of our neighbors,” Green said.
Property taxes in Woodland and elsewhere statewide have been shifting back and forth in recent years following legislation designed to meet a court mandate to fully fund K-12 education. After a tax hike that property owners saw on their tax bills in 2018, bills in many districts dropped the following year after a cap on local levies was put in place.
For bills paid this year, however, that local levy rate cap rose from $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed valuation to $2.50 per $1,000. The rate the district put on the ballot is below that cap, maintaining a similar rate to what’s affecting 2020 taxes, and Green pointed out it was lower than the rate the district put up for a vote the last time it ran a levy replacement — it was in the $2.70 per $1,000 range when voters approved that ballot measure in 2017.
Historically, voters have been supportive of levy replacement, with Green recalling that it was back in the 1990s the last time such a ballot measure failed. Should voters decide this time around not to pass a levy, he said the district would likely have to resort to personnel cuts, given that 85 percent of the district budget is for staffing.
“That, ultimately, is a school board-guided decision,” Green said.
