001So just a a quick reminder as you all know but for those listening or those who haven't heard this before there's two different types of measures in the state of Washington. Uh one is levies which are short-term one to sixyear voter approved debts that are supporting learning. So levies start with an L. They support learning. Bonds on the other hand are for building. Bonds start with a B. Building starts with a B. They are more closely related to a home mortgage. They're for building buildings. They require a 60% supermajority to pass and they are 10 to 25 years in length. So that's how they reflect a mortgage type payment. So levey's for learning, bonds are for building. And school districts across the the state need both. And so even if you're listening and you don't
002reside in Sultan, I would say support your local school district levy. It's essential until the state fully funds public education. For us specifically in Sultan, what we are requesting the taxpayers approve is not a new tax. It is a replacement of the existing levy that's on the books right now that will stop collecting in the calendar year of 2026. So just to confuse things a little bit more, you've got levy collections that happen on a calendar year. You have a school district's fiscal year that runs September to August. and you have a state fiscal year that's July to June. So to make it even more confusing for people, a very complex system. The most important thing about this is for people to know that 10 10.6% of what we have budgeted uh or about $4.5
003million is totally reliant on the levy. So we often hear a lot of like, well, what are we going to lose if it doesn't pass? It is really hard to start naming all the specifics because of such the trickle down effect that can happen. But no different than a home budget. If you lost 10% of your anticipated revenue, hard decisions would be ahead. And we don't want that for our students and staff. So, this talks a little bit about what this is by no means an all-inclusive list, but what it does pay for is teachers and substitutes, not certificated and classified staff. So, as many people may be aware, the prototypical model that says how many teachers and custodians, counselors, principles we're supposed to have for the number of students that we enroll is inadequate.
004So everything above what that model generates is supported out of the local levy expanded curriculum and compensation but beyond what the state covers. So pre mccclary you had a state salary schedule. Now they fund on an average teacher cost. So it does not account for districts like Sultan who are benefiting from a very experienced staff that have stayed around a while. They cost more. And that model is contingent on you. They they think you have a bell curve of staff, you know, young teachers, experienced teachers, and some people in the middle. And somehow that average salary is going to come out to be even. And when you don't even fund all the teachers that we have, the simple math, that doesn't work. >> Also funds any extracurriculars or after school activities. Nothing in extracurriculars is
005funded through the state budget. clubs, sports, ASB, none of that comes. And then utilities, it is used for things like electricity and water, software updates. That's why when people say like, "What are we going to lose?" Sometimes it's challenging to name everything because obviously we can't not pay our utility bills. Those expenses would have to move over to the general ledger side of the budget, which means other things would have to come off. Again, how does levy collection work? The district asks for a set dollar amount and then collects that dollar amount based on the value of the properties in the district. So if you if we had four houses in the district and the district's levy voted amount was $1,000 and all the properties were valued the same, everybody would pay $250. Often times
006what people think is we get another house, we get another $250. And the reality is the voter approved levy amount is the maximum we can collect. So if the levy was a thousand and a fifth house was built on the street, really each house's tax liability for the levy would go down. So that would then divide the $1,000 instead of by four would divide it by five and each homeowner would then be paying $200. We don't control the value of everybody's property. We understand frustration with not making improvements to your property and somebody else saying it's worth a significant dollar amount more, but we do have a cap on what we can collect that's not dictated by the number of houses built. So, this slide has been updated since you saw it in September because
007we did get some more information that can be really clear. The first part is the same. Since 2019, the state capped how much you can collect by either a cap of $250 per thousand or $3,35124 per pupil, typical fashion, whichever is the lower. In 2025, the district, now that the year is over, can say that it was $151 per thousand collected on the EPO side and 96 cents per thousand collected on the capital project side. And in 2026, the current year they are they initially projected through the department of revenue right department of revenue that it would be a $164 once the values came out it actually came in at $154 on the EPO side and then a capital projects collection of 99. So for the 2026 calendar year we we're expecting a collection of
008$253. That's the new number that wasn't there in September because we didn't have the final thing. And then as we project forward in 2027, if you remember when we talked about putting the ballot measure on, we had said that we would ask for no more than that. So actually $160 on the EPO side and 90 on capital projects for a total of $2.50 projected collection. When we say not a new tax, we often get is it that you're asking for the same dollar amount or the same per thousand? It's a little bit less per thousand um because there's more properties in the district, more value in the properties. So, the individual person's liability would be less. And the next two slides recap over the last four years, the levy that's expiring next December, what has
009been asked for and what's been collected in both the EPO levy side and the capital project side. And then this is the EPNO projection for the next four years. So it does escalate based on the property values that department of revenue expect in our community. Um so that's what those slides will reflect. Similarly, this is the capital projects collection and then next is what we are asking the voters to approve on February 10th. Again, we recommend anybody that has questions can email me or call the office. We want people to be educated and informed. They should be getting their levy flyer in their mailboxes the end of last week, beginning of this week as ballots start to show up. We have started to put some things out on social media that are reflective of what
010it pays for. So, similar to the slide that you saw, um, this is a visual representation of that. Again, people ask, you know, what is at stake? Anything that is funded by the levy is at stake. should the district not pass its levy in February or worst case scenario see a double levy failure similar to what Mary'sville had where we put it back up and then it doesn't pass a second time go ahead um again really important for our people I think in our community as evidenced by seeing where our students are they participate in a lot of extracurricular activities those are all 100% funded by the levy and really leaning on our community that's important to our students but also I know important to parents. You see some pictures on there on the right
011like husky hoops at Goldb Bar, which is our high school students, basketball players going down and doing some afterchool work with young students at Goldb Bar. Those are great things that are happening in our local community that rely on levy funding. And then again, wanting to reflect for people really clearly that the the levy is for learning because we want to be passing this levy in February and be able to talk to our voters about a bond for future building and bonds are for building. So we we need votes now and then whenever the bond measure is on, we want that as well. Again, this is a Q&A that was trying to be responsive to what we hear. If if property values increase, will we get more funding? No. Again, we're capped at that total
012dollar amount. It's just further divided by the values in the community. And some great pictures of the things that our students do that are funded out of levies, athletics and band, fine arts, CTE classes. Great opportunities for our kids that would be at risk if we don't have local support to pass the levy. This last side is also an ad. This is not levy specific, but wanting to show that for Sultan specifically over the last four years in three big areas that you often hear us talk about, special education, MSOCs or transportation, the district has seen a gap in funding in the $5 million range from the state. And so when we talk about needing that gap filling levy, this is because core functions of operations are not supported by the state's lack of fully
013funding education as is prescribed again by the constitution. I just wanted to to wrap up there and to remind people to vote if you haven't already. Vote before February 10th. You know, if you have questions, please reach out so that we can give factual information. and appreciate the community's past support for our students and staff through levies and what it allows us to offer and hope that we will see that support showing up again.