Most Thurston school funding measures passing in early tallies, but 2 bonds in limbo

Voters in every Thurston County school district weighed in on at least one funding measure in a special election held Tuesday, and initial results show most are passing.

But bonds that need super-majorities are in jeopardy, and one district’s levy that needs 50 percent to pass is teetering on the edge.

All eight Thurston County districts asked voters to approve Educational Programs and Operations replacement levies. As of Wednesday afternoon, with voter turnout at just over 28 percent, the Thurston County Auditor’s Office reported all replacement operations levies passing in Thurston County.

In Olympia School District, where the replacement levy was the only measure considered, 10,020 voters had approved and 4,360 had voted no in the initial tally.

“We are grateful to the voters of Olympia for supporting the students, staff and families of the Olympia School District,” Superintendent Patrick Murphy said in a statement emailed to The Olympian.

Yelm Community Schools was in a more precarious position.

The district reaches into Pierce County, and a technology-related issue made the combined result of the levy difficult to determine Tuesday night. Thurston County Auditor Mary Hall told The Olympian the Secretary of State’s voter registration “results function” was not working, causing statewide issues.

By Wednesday afternoon, however, combined county results on the Thurston County Auditor’s website showed the district’s replacement operations levy passing with just under 51 percent of the vote.

Superintendent Brian Wharton told The Olympian in a phone interview Tuesday night the district would be “on pins and needles” until Wednesday evening, when the next ballot count was scheduled.

“We typically get a lot of people that vote on the last day,” he said.

Some districts — Griffin, North Thurston, Rochester, and Tumwater — put forth an additional levy or bond for specific purposes. Levies require a simple majority of 50 percent to pass, while bonds require a super majority of 60 percent.

The two districts that sought additional levies, Griffin and Tumwater, saw early success: In Griffin, a capital levy that would allow it to levy $755,000 in property taxes in 2021 and 2022 was passing Tuesday, with 1,011 yes votes and 644 no votes. Tumwater’s capital levy that would allow it to levy $10 million over 2021-22 was passing with 4,741 yes votes and 3,243 no votes.

North Thurston and Rochester school districts both had bonds on the ballots, and those appeared to be in limbo.

Combined county results for Rochester School District’s capital bond showed it well below the necessary super-majority threshold, with 1,589 voting yes and 1,316 voting no, while its replacement levy was easily passing. The district is spread over parts of three counties.

According to the district’s website, the bond for nearly $57.5 million would go toward adding security vestibules at schools’ main entries, upgrading crisis communication systems, improving school parking lots, a building addition to Rochester High School that would allow classes to move out of portables, and other upgrades.

North Thurston’s replacement operations levy, which according to the district website funds 12 percent of its overall budget, was also passing easily, while its capital bond was on the edge of the super-majority threshold.

“We’re really excited and grateful for the levy approval,” Superintendent Debra Clemens told The Olympian in a phone interview Tuesday night. “Our community has come out again and again in support of our schools, and our students and staff and our parents and families so appreciate our community’s support. As the campaign has said over and over again: Quality schools equals a quality community.”

The $275.2 million bond, which includes safety and security improvements and improvements to school facilities, had 11,300 votes in favor and 7,457 votes against tallied as of the first count. Clemens said the district will be watching those numbers closely.

“We’re ready to get to work for our community, we just need to hit that 60 percent threshold,” she said. “And, right now, we’re teetering on the edge of that.”

Update (Feb. 12, 2 p.m.): A technical issue initially prevented access to compiled results for districts that span multiple counties. The Olympian manually added the results from individual counties Tuesday night, and while the results did not change, the story has been updated to reflect that the totals have now been directly reported by the auditor’s office.

This story was originally published February 11, 2020 at 10:01 PM.