PORT TOWNSEND — The Jefferson County Auditor’s Office has received 35 percent of the ballots sent to registered voters in the Quilcene and Brinnon school districts for Tuesday’s special election on three levies.
The two districts have 2,610 active voters and 920 ballots had been returned as of Friday morning, said Sandi Eldridge, Jefferson County voter registration coordinator.
Quilcene School District is asking voters to approve both an Educational Programs & Operations (EP&O) levy and a capital levy while Brinnon School District placed an EP&O levy on its ballot.
All three levies require a simple majority of 50 percent plus one to pass, officials said.
The four-year approximately $2.4 million EP&O levy for Quilcene (Proposition 1) is a replacement of the current levy.
If passed, property owners will pay the same $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed property value as they have been paying, said Frank Redmon, Quilcene School District superintendent.
The EP&O levy helps support the district’s breakfast and lunch program, a full-time counselor, district transportation, and allows the district to have single grade classrooms and art and music programs, Redmon said.
The capital levy (Proposition 2) for Quilcene will have property owners paying an additional $1.97 per $1,000 assessed value.
It would be in place for two years for a total of $1.63 million in preparation for a possible bond proposal, Redmon said.
The capital levy would be used to fix facility issues such as replacing the “aging and unfixable” bus barn, moving the barn to across Rose Street and moving the student bus pick-up and drop-off to the same side of the street as the school — so students no longer have to cross the street to get to and from the busses — while updating the parent drop-off area to make it more “efficient for the parents and safer for the students,” Redmon said.
In addition to the facility repairs, the capital levy would also help fund long term facility planning to replace the aging elementary school through a possible future bond and allow work to begin on an outdoor educational space, Redmon said.
The Brinnon EP&O levy (Proposition 1) is an approximately $600,000 levy that at most would have property owners paying $1.02 per $1,000 per assessed value, which is similar to the current rates of the EP&O levy, said Trish Beathard, Brinnon School District superintendent.
The EP&O levy supports the free preschool program for 3-and-4-year-old Brinnon students, supplements the breakfast and lunch program; helps with building maintenance and repairs, utility and operating expenses and required fees for sending high school students to neighboring districts; as well as an extra day of counseling for student and classroom support and unfunded educational programs, Beathard said.
The preschool program specifically has a large class of 14 students, Beathard said.
Ballots must be postmarked by Tuesday or dropped off no later than 8 p.m. that day inside or outside the county Auditor’s Office at the Jefferson County Courthouse, 1820 Jefferson St., Port Townsend; the Quilcene Community Center, 294952 U.S. Highway 101; or the Brinnon Community Center, 306144 Highway 101.
More information about the three levies can be found at tinyurl.com/PDN- School-Levies.
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Jefferson County reporter Zach Jablonski can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 5, or at zjablonski@peninsuladailynews.com.
