Lewis County’s canvassing board on Friday certified the April 27 special election results, solidifying passage of Centralia School District’s replacement levy with 50.66% of voters in favor.
“We are excited, we are thankful and this is a great success and accomplishment for our community, but we know that it’s one in many steps toward being a district of excellence that we know is to come,” Superintendent Lisa Grant said by phone Friday.
The levy passed on a slim 73-vote margin, as 2,817 ballots were tallied in favor of the tax and 2,744 were against it. Turnout topped out at 37.53%, according to the Lewis County Auditor’s Office.
Passage of the levy comes as big relief for Centralia School District leaders and administrators who were worried that a third failed levy would have brought with it more financial uncertainty for programs and staff.
In May of last year, the school board approved a resolution laying off 90 staff members, citing potential levy losses. In August 2020, the school district publicized a projected shortfall in its 2020-2021 school year budget of $11.9 million — a portion of which is due to lost levy revenue, The Chronicle previously reported.
The district’s previous levy expired in December, and as such, some programs have been operating on allocated funding or on a scaled-back approach.
The district will now collect $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed property value starting next year. The two-year replacement tax is estimated to levy $9.1 million in total.
Though collection doesn’t start until next year, Grant said the district plans on frontloading funds into its current budget to soften the impact of its already-afflicted budget. A complete return to the district’s funding level observed prior to the first levy failure also doesn’t seem feasible at this point, she said.
“The $1.50 levy does not mean we bring back everything that was previously reduced. There were other reductions in the larger scope of our budget because we are making sure that we are living within our means,” Grant said.
The district in February 2020, prior to the pandemic, asked voters to pass a $2.50 levy. That effort, as well as a reduced measure in August later that year, failed.
Grant said there’s a substantial difference between $1.50 and $2.50, and she noted that work over the coming months will revolve around determining what programs will benefit the most from these precious funds.
The district has already outlined that the levy will broadly pay for essential education and extracurricular services not covered by state or federal funding, such as support staff, counselors, athletics, technology and special education programs.
Scott Chamberlain, the district’s athletics director and Centralia High School’s assistant principal, said he’s not completely certain at this point that athletics programs at the district will be fully funded since they’ve yet to determine how they’re going to divide the money.
“We haven’t punched those numbers to see what gives us the full capability, but we’ll be really close to being back to normal,” he said.
For many months now, coaches, announcers and scorekeepers have been volunteering their time to the district in lieu of regular payment, he said.
Both the high school Associated Student Body Fund and the Centralia Athletics Activities and Facilities Foundation, which helps fund projects and improvements for athletics, have allocated funding toward transportation costs.
Some years, those costs can top out at $70,000 for both the high school and middle school.
Though there were many “what if” scenarios floating around last week going into the special election, Chamberlain said staff were hopeful after what they went through last year.
“It’s been a really rough year on athletics, not just because of levy failure but because of COVID and seasons changing … You add all those together, and it’s been tough,” he said.
The most important part of the levy’s passage, he pointed out, is that students will continue to have the opportunity to get involved in that “secondary education” of athletics, which teaches students many lifelong lessons and instills pride in their school.
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Chronicle Reporter Emily Fitzgerald contributed to this story.
