Frequently Asked Questions about the Levy
How did the McCleary legislation change school funding?
Beginning in 2018, the state provided additional funding for Washington school districts, but that money was designated for very specific purposes. At the same time, they put a local "levy lid" in place, limiting the amount of money a school district can raise from its local community via a levy.
As a result, school districts have fewer options for how they can spend state dollars and are limited in their ability to raise money locally for programs and services that don't meet the strict guidelines for state funding.
Why aren’t my school taxes lower if fewer kids are attending school in person? Isn’t the district saving money on things like transportation and food?
COVID-19 has forced school districts to reimagine education and shift from traditional, in-person instruction, first to remote-only instruction, and then to a hybrid learning model. The latter is what Lyle School is currently working under, with students receiving in-person instruction two or more days a week at school and participating in class remotely the remainder of the time. (Some parents have requested that their children participate remotely full-time.)
With this shift came new and unbudgeted expenses, such as the need to purchase digital smart boards, computer hardware and staff training to support remote learning, as well as the need to buy required PPE for staff.
At the same time, all school districts are facing a loss in state funding because of declines in enrollment, with some families choosing other options for educating their children.
Facility costs such as water and power, as well as staff costs don’t go away just because students aren’t in the building. Teachers, while instructing remotely, are still working and school districts must honor labor contracts and continue to pay employees.
Lyle kept bus drivers and paraeducators actively working last Spring, when students and teachers worked from home. Daily, our buses moved through the community to drop off meals and learning packets to students. Paraeducators prepared the packets with materials emailed to them by teachers.
If the district is required to go all-remote again and some positions such as bus drivers were to be furloughed, the school districts still must pay their share of unemployment claims from laid-off staff. This is another unforeseen and unbudgeted expense.
Can’t the District Use Money Generated by the Dallesport Property to Pay for these Things?
Due to the bankruptcy of Sagetech, the Dallesport property is currently not generating any income. Even if it were, the short answer to the question is, “no.” Here's why.
State law requires that funds generated from the rental or sale of public property be put in an account that has just one use: To pay for the construction or major improvements to buildings and property -- not student programs, staff salaries, nutrition or transportation services.
How Does Enrollment Affect Schools' Funding?
Our enrollment affects both the amount of state and levy funding we receive. That’s always been the case with state funding, but it’s new with levy collections. The state legislature developed a new formula for how schools determine how much they can collect for a levy. School district levies can be based on the lesser of two formulas:
- $2.50 per $1,000 of assessed property value, or
- the equivalent of $2,500 per student
For smaller districts like Lyle, levy collections are based on $2,500 per student. This new formulas resulted in a significant reduction in levy collections the past two years for all schools.
However, in 2022, it will be worse. Enrollment is down across the country, and here in Lyle because of the pandemic. For schools in Washington the loss of enrollment means even less money from our levy, but not until the following year.
This graph shows the change in enrollment in Lyle Schools over the past four years. After five years of steady growth, in the current school year, our enrollment is down significantly.
