Kennewick staff propose $29.5M EP&O and a "tech safety" levy; board directs resolution for Nov. 12

Kennewick School District staff presented a levy proposal during a board study session that would raise the district's EP&O ask to $29.5 million and change the existing technology levy into a "tech safety" levy to allow certain capital safety improvements to be funded from that levy. Staff said the board would be asked to approve a resolution on Nov. 12 to place the levy before voters in the Feb. 10 election.

The presentation, led by Dr. Carl Hart, laid out the district's budget picture: staff reported total state, federal and other grant revenues of about $288 million against budgeted expenditures near $339 million, leaving a funding gap staff estimated at roughly $50.8 million. "If we want to even sustain what we currently have right now, doing a simple 3% escalator just simply isn't mathematically enough," Dr. Hart said, explaining a model in which modest annual increases would let the gap grow to about $70 million in four years.

Why it matters: staff said local levies fund services and positions that the prototypical state funding model does not cover, including counselors, paraeducators, school nurses, school resource officers (SROs), extracurriculars, custodial staffing beyond state-funded FTE and certain…