Tumwater School District outlines six-year replacement capital, technology and safety levy at virtual town hall

Tumwater School District leaders on a virtual town hall described a proposed six-year replacement capital, technology and safety levy that the district plans to place on the Feb. 10 ballot and said the measure is meant to fund building repairs, replacement technology and campus safety systems rather than classroom staffing or general operations.

The district emphasized why the levy differs from an EP&O (education programs and operations) levy and outlined projects it says the levy would cover: student devices and classroom technology, security-camera and data-center replacements, renovation of aging bathrooms and hydronic piping, new rubberized inclusive playground surfaces, multipurpose rooms to reduce instructional disruptions, turf-field replacements and paving and safety improvements at high-school parking lots. Assistant Superintendent Ben Rarer told listeners the proposal is a replacement for an expiring capital/technology levy and not a levy to fund staff.

"This is not the levy that addresses staffing or general fund needs of the district," Rarer said, and later added the district tried "to design this safety capital and technology levy so that it would not increase overall taxes on our homeowners." Rarer showed the district’s tax-rate breakdown — general fund (EP&O), capital/technology levy and bond debt service — and said projected decreases in bond debt service would offset the levy portion, producing a lower combined tax rate in the projection period if estimates hold.

Dan Reich, the district’s director of technology, described technology lifecycle issues that drive replacement needs: devices and network hardware reach end-of-life, vendor support and security updates stop, and cameras and back-end equipment deteriorate. "As they go end of life, the vendors quit supporting them, and we no longer get security updates for them," Reich said, arguing capital funds are required to keep systems secure and functional.

Kira Ackert, on the capital projects team, outlined facility projects the levy would support, including replacing wood-chip playgrounds with rubberized accessible surfaces, adding covered play areas, constructing multipurpose rooms at some elementary schools, improving middle-school pickup and dropoff circulation, upgrading cameras at middle schools, replacing worn turf at Black Hills High School, and paving the gravel parking area and creating an additional exit at the high school stadium to ease traffic during events.

On financing, Rarer presented collection figures the district used in its slide deck: roughly $6,400,000 collected in the capital/technology levy in 2025 versus a projected first-year collection of about $5,900,000 under the proposed levy. He described those numbers as "good faith estimates" and cautioned projections can change over six years. When asked about future bonds and timing, Rarer said the board has discussed a potential bond two to three years from now (possibly 2028–29) because that is when some schools could become eligible for state match funds; he noted a bond would require voter approval at a 60% threshold.

District leaders invited attendees to review the posted PowerPoint and a spreadsheet that breaks down projects by type, and they provided follow-up contact information for questions: (360) 709-7003 and tsd.levy.information@tumwater.k12.wa.us. They also announced a second virtual town hall next Thursday for additional questions.

The presentation ended with district leaders reiterating the levy’s scope (capital, technology and safety), the claim that the levy is a replacement rather than a new operations tax, and encouragement for public review of the posted materials and further questions before the Feb. 10 ballot.