Longview School District seeking replacement levy to finance vocational, security, tech projects

Measure would help district continue goal to expand, improve vocational education

Marissa Heffernan is a former reporter for The Daily News and is an occasional contributor to Lower Columbia Currents.

Sawdust, metalworking fumes and piercing noise do not mix well with computers or the people using them.

Separating them in Mark Morris High School vocational education classrooms is up to Longview School District voters.

The district is seeking approval of a four-year Capital Projects, Safety and Technology levy that would raise $3.4 million to $3.9 million annually. If approved, it would replace a nearly identical four-year levy that is expiring this year.

Ballots have been mailed out and must be returned or postmarked by February 10 to be valid. (See note at bottom of this story for new rules about this.)

The levy would benefit every school in the district, according to school officials. It would finance security upgrades, camera systems, new roofing, HVAC repairs and technology upgrades. It cannot be used for salaries or day-to-day maintenance projects.

“Every device that a student uses, every device that a teacher uses” would be affected., Superintendent Karen Cloninger said. “That’s obviously important, so our kids graduate prepared to compete in the job market,” she said.

The levy would cost school district property owners $0.38 per $1,000 of assessed value in 2027, 2028 and 2029 and $.37 per $1,000 of assessed home value in 2030. Owners of $200,000 homes would pay $95 a year. Owners of $400,000 homes would pay $152.

The Capital Projects levy is distinct from the district’s Educational Programs and Operations levy, which finances student services such as nurses, counselors, and extracurriculars. That levy provides between 15% and 16% of the district’s total operationing budget.

Total voter-approved school tax collections are forecast to increase by 2% over the next four years, Cloninger said. All voter-approved Longview School taxes, including construction bonds, total $2.67 per $1,000 of assessed value.

Cloninger emphasized that the district’s total property burden is well below the average of Cowlitz County school districts — $2.90 per $1,000. Clark County’s average is $2.93 per $1,000.

“We’re very mindful of the tax burden our stakeholders are experiencing, as well as inflation, and we have taken that into consideration,” she said.

The levy would enable the district to continue developing and improving its manufacturing classrooms at Mark Morris High School, a priority, Cloninger said.

“We are very proud of that space, and our students have an opportunity to be a part of a pre-apprenticeship program with that classroom,” she said. “We need to make sure that we are upgrading so that they have access to using the kinds of equipment they will use in internships or apprenticeships, or prepare them for two-year programs.”

New dedicated space will keep computers and equipment separate from woodshop and metal shop areas.

“It wouldn’t be a complete overhaul of the space. That’s not feasible within the amount we’re asking in this capital levy. But what it would do is allow for some renovation that improves safety and supervision, as well as storage for materials and supplies and creating an actual space designed for the virtual training,” Cloninger said.

She said the levy will “helps us maintain our facilities so that our students have the best instructional environment and our staff is in a facility that is conducive to amazing teaching and learning.”

The 2022 Capital Projects, Safety and Technology levy paid for the modernization of Memorial Stadium, new roofs at Columbia Heights and Mint Valley elementaries and Monticello and Cascade Middle schools and the district bus garage. It also financed security fencing and gates at elementary schools, more security cameras across the district, HVAC and boiler repairs at Mark Morris High School, secure vestibule entrances at schools across the district, and new fire alarm systems at Mint Valley and Kessler elementary schools.

If Longview voters do not pass the replacement levy, Cloninger said many of the repairs would have to be paid out of the general budget.

“When we don’t have a capital levy to support these kinds of repairs, we do have to take that funding from our basic ed budget and it does impact services to kids,” she said.

And when projects are delayed or deferred, costs rise. For example, a recent chiller repair at Mark Morris was initially quoted at $700,000 to $800,000, but the cost eventually zoomed to $1.2 million.

Cloninger said many of the district’s projects are completed by local companies, keeping those dollars in the community.

“Even though there is a stringent bidding process for school districts that we have to follow, we’ve been very lucky that we have highly qualified local companies who have been the recipients of those bids,” she said.

She called the relationship between the community and the school district “very reciprocal.”

“The better schools are, the more likely we are to attract new companies to the city,” she said. “The more new business growth we have in the city, the better the schools are. Investing in the school is investing in the community and the future of the community.”

New postmark rules

Ballots must be postmarked by Feb. 10 to be counted or turned in by 8 p.m. that day. However, new postal service practices could result in invalidated ballots if voters mail them too close to the deadline.

Under new rules, postmarks are stamped at regional processing centers instead of local post offices. Mail from Longview goes to processing hubs in Vancouver or Portland. That could mean several days’ delay and possibly result in a late postmark that invalidates a ballot.

There are two ballot drop boxes in Longview that are open until 8 p.m. on election day. They are located at the Civic Center Circle and on Broadway, both near Longview City Hall. The elections office in Kelso also has a drop box.

Hayley Johnson, elections manager for Cowlitz County, said voters should mail ballots no later than Friday, February 6. They should use drop boxes after that date or use one other alternative, she said:

“If mailing after that, it is advised that voters physically take their ballot into the post office to receive a hand-stamped postmark from the clerk."

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