School levies gain support; Hockinson tech measure still failing

Hockinson officials can take a breath after the second tally of results from Tuesday’s special election were released.

The district’s three-year replacement operations levy was 17 votes ahead as of Tuesday night. After the next round of ballots were counted, the levy sits more than 100 votes ahead, with nearly 700 more ballots were counted. The levy is now at 52.01 percent in favor, compared with 50.32 as of Tuesday night.

Hockinson’s other levy, a three-year technology levy, also received more support at Wednesday’s results, but is still failing. The technology levy received 1,650 votes for, or 48.87 percent of ballots returned so far. The measure received 1,726 votes against it.

The other two districts running levies in Tuesday’s election — Ridgefield and Mount Pleasant — also strengthened leads after Wednesday’s results. Ridgefield’s replacement three-year levy sat at 56.22 percent in favor Tuesday night, and is now at 57.44 percent in favor. The replacement levy for Mount Pleasant, a K-8 district at the entrance of the Columbia River Gorge near Washougal with about 55 students, received 53.85 percent of the vote in favor after Tuesday’s initial results. That levy now has 57.95 percent of the turnout in favor. The Mount Pleasant levy has received 88 votes so far, six from Clark County, which are split with four in favor and two against. The rest of the votes are from Skamania County.

Levy numbers

As part of the new state funding model for education, local levies are capped at $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed property value, which is what Ridgefield requested for all three years of the levy, which would start in 2020. Levy dollars are used for special education, additional support staff, extracurricular activities, outdoor school, professional development for staff and technology in Ridgefield.

Hockinson’s replacement levy also asked for $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed property value for all three years, which would be put toward keeping class sizes down, helping fund special education programs, extracurricular activities and athletics. If the levy fails, the district would have to make cuts in the range of $1.5 million to $1.8 million for the 2019-2020 school year.

The technology levy would start in 2020, and the district asked for an estimated 45 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, followed by 40 cents per $1,000 in 2021 and 36 cents per $1,000 in 2022. That money would have been used for technology refreshes, safety and security upgrades, heating and cooling improvements and capital improvements.

Officials in Mount Pleasant asked for $155,000 per year, which Mount Pleasant can get to with estimated levy rates of $3.53 per $1,000 of assessed value in 2020, $3.48 per $1,000 in 2021 and $3.43 per $1,000 in 2022.

Superintendent Vicki Prendergast said earlier this year the district can only collect what the state allows, but Mount Pleasant officials are hoping the Legislature raises the cap at some point in the next three years, and the district won’t have to wait until the levy expires to start collecting more money.

The next ballot count is scheduled for Tuesday, and results will be certified May 3.