Decisions loom for three Spokane school districts
By Doug Nadvornick, Spokane Public Radio
Spokane County elections officials today (Fri) sealed the fate of three close school levy losses.
Each of the three districts, Mead, West Valley and Central Valley, won one and lost one on March 14th.
Voters in the Mead district approved an operations levy to supplement the district’s basic funding from the state. But the district fell just short with its technology levy. The measure won nearly 59-and-a-half percent of the vote…just short of the 60-percent needed.
Superintendent Al Swanson says the school board will meet Monday to review the results and decide whether to run the levy again this year. Swanson believes the board will decide to take the rest of the year to rethink the levy and reconnect with voters.
The Central Valley School Board will also meet Monday. It will talk about the failure of a 55-million dollar school facilities bond issue that won almost 57-percent of the vote. The measure would have financed two new schools and three major remodeling projects. District officials say the growth in the east end of the district and aging elementary schools make the project necessary. C-V voters did approve an operations levy.
In the West Valley district, voters approved a technology levy, but narrowly rejected the basic operations levy. District spokeswoman Sue Shields says the school board voted Wednesday to resubmit that levy to voters on May 16th.