Here s another table showing the total cost of local school property taxes in both 2013 and 2014 assuming both levy proposals are approved by voters:

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1 Why is the district asking for a new EP&O levy? The district is not asking for a new levy. The proposed EP&O levy is a replacement for the current levy (previously known as an M&O levy). The replacement levy is for the same amount approved by voters for 2013 ($5,780,000). How much will these levies cost me? If both of these levies pass, rates will decrease from 2013 to Below is a projection of local school district property tax rates. The 2013 rates Educational Programs and Operations and Debt Service Fund levies have already been approved by voters. The 2014 through 2017 rates reflect rates if both of the current levy proposals are approved by voters. The Rates per $1,000 AV are estimates and subject to change with property values. Here s another table showing the total cost of local school property taxes in both 2013 and 2014 assuming both levy proposals are approved by voters:

2 The local school tax total goes down because in 2014 we pay off bonded indebtedness supported by the Debt Service Fund levy. This proposal keeps taxpayers local tax rates stable and allows the district to meet its transportation needs in a fiscally moderate way. If the school district s assessed valuation increases, will the district receive more in taxes? No. The amount approved by the voters is the maximum that the district will be allowed to collect. How does the Sequim School District spend levy dollars? The chart below shows how Sequim School District spends levy dollars paid through local school taxes in : Certificated Staff Classified Staff Technology $166,393, 4% $53,444, 1% $213,957, 5% $723,285, 16% Facilities $317,079, 7% $2,603,003, 57% Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment $457,546, 10% The largest portion of levy money pays for certificated staff; supporting the cost of 37 certificated classroom teachers. Personnel costs make up a portion of each of the other supported areas as well; each supported cost area has a direct relationship to students or the classroom. What happens if the levy proposals fail? EP&O: Plans for reduction of costs will be prepared. Programs supported by the EP&O levy will be included in the review of programs to be reduced. The School Board of Directors may ask the voters again in the same calendar year to approve an EP&O levy. TVF: The district will purchase buses, but use non voted debt to finance the purchase, resulting in an increased cost to the taxpayers of the district of about $20,000 per bus purchased.

3 How does Sequim School District compare to neighboring districts? The Sequim School District collects less per student in local EP&O levy dollars than most neighboring districts on the Olympic Peninsula and less than the statewide average. The chart below shows the comparison of 2012 EP&O levies, Sequim is the light blue bar with the red arrow: The Sequim School District s estimated levy rate per thousand for EP&O levies in 2012 is near of its Olympic Peninsula neighbors and the statewide average. Sequim is the green bar with the red arrow:

4 Why doesn t the district just buy more used buses? Used school buses are risky for several reasons. Like a used car, a used bus may have mechanical issues that are lying in wait and may cost more to fix than the initial purchase price of the bus itself. Our district has only one bus mechanic, who is also the Director of Transportation. Mechanical failures put students at risk on the road and are not conducive to reliable operations of the transportation system. Used buses don t come with manufacturers warranties like new buses do, so the risk of failure lies entirely with the district. Every time I see a school bus on the road it s empty or has very few students on board. Why doesn t the district just cut the number of buses it operates to save money? Operating a bus fleet requires a careful balance of route design and number of routes to ensure that students arrive at school on time without spending too much time on the bus. The school district works very hard to operate its transportation fleet as efficiently as possible. The number of students you may see on a school bus varies depending on the time of day you may see them; for example, if a bus has just left the transportation center or has dropped off its last student on its route, you may see no students on that bus. If you watch buses enter our stadium lot before school starts, you ll see they re mostly full. In fact, our ridership has increased by 200 students since even though our enrollment has dropped by about 50 students. The State of Washington evaluates the efficiency of our transportation annually when it calculates our funding for operations. Sequim School District is ranked as 100% efficient for this purpose. Am I exempt from paying local school taxes? If you are at least 61 years of age and earn less than $35,000 annually, you may qualify for an exemption from local school taxes. Please call the Clallam County Assessor s office at for more information. I live in Clallam County outside the city limits of Sequim. Will I vote on this levy? The Sequim School District boundaries stretch from O Brien Road east to Gardiner near Discovery Bay, the north from the Olympic Mountains to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. If your registered voter address lies within this area, you ll receive a ballot for this election. I see so many yellow signs around town saying Vote Yes. How can the school district spend taxpayer s money to promote the levy in this way? The school district is not allowed to spend taxpayer s money to promote a political position. The Vote Yes signs seen are paid for and placed by a private group of citizens and are not funded by taxpayer dollars at all. The district is allowed to provide factual information regarding the levy and its uses in providing educational services. You may have received a document titled School Levy Facts in your mail. This document was produced and paid for by the school district and is an allowed communication under Public Disclosure Commission rules. It does not advocate for or against a political position.

5 What is this state school tax that you say I pay in your chart for possible impact to District if the Bus Levy doesn't pass? Property taxes for a parcel within the Sequim School District but not in the city of Sequim total $9.94 per $1,000 of assessed valuation in 2012 (I don t have the 2013 numbers for all the taxing districts within our area so I ll have to provide you the 2012 numbers). Those property taxes are paid to 8 different governments. Those governments and the amounts paid to each are shown in the chart below: The state component of $2.35 is used to fund state government, including the state s responsibility for funding public education. School district s that maximize the number of buses in their fleet on the depreciation schedule return to their communities the maximum amount of state property tax its residents pay. School district s that do not have the maximum number of buses in their fleet on the state depreciation schedule actually cause the state to send property tax money its residents pay to districts with the maximum numbers of buses in its fleet on the depreciation schedule. One way we can get the most amount of property tax back to our district (and the district belongs to its taxpayers, so back to you) is to keep as many buses in the depreciation schedule as we can. This is not about solely getting the most money back however, this is also about having the best equipment we can get to transport our students in and keeping our fleet maintenance and operations cost as low as possible.

6 What is the maximum of that state school tax we would lose without those new buses? If we do not maximize the number of buses in our fleet on the depreciation schedule, we estimate that we will forgo $5,821,000 in state property tax returned to the district in a 26 year period. How much money will be saved if you don't have to borrow money for purchasing the buses? Is it more of less that the money you are collecting from this levy? We save approximately $18,000 by not financing a bus purchase. A straight cash purchase of a bus is $102,000, while the financed cost is $120,000. If we financed these buses instead of using a levy, that will translate into an additional cost of $1,200,000 over a 26 year period. On the Educational Programs Levy, what specific programs and services will be cut if the levy doesn't pass? What type of staffing would be cut? The School District Board of Directors determine what programs would be cut if the levy does not pass. That being said, at present the levy funds the cost of 37 certificated classroom instructors and 12 classified staff positions ranging from custodians to clerical staff. If transportation is costing us this much, why doesn t the district contract out (privatize) its transportation operations? We had researched this in October when only comparative data was available. Now the data is available and the same picture painted by data is repeated. The table of that data is shown here:

7 As you can see from the table, there are only 15 districts out of 295 statewide who contract out their transportation operations. Transportation Operations are funded by the state; one measurement of efficiency we use is how much additional money must be provided by the district to transportation operations beyond what is provided by the state. This measure represents dollars that could be spent in the classroom but are instead spent on transportation. This not an uncommon condition, but I was surprised by the level of subsidy provided to transportation in the districts that contract out. In the subsidy averaged 42% of total costs, while in it averaged 67% of total costs for districts that contract out. Comparing Sequim s subsidy of 3% and 6% in those respective years shows our own student transportation operations are costing us significantly less in terms of subsidy provided to operations. Seeing these performance statistics reconfirms the TVF levy makes fiscal sense for the taxpayers of the district. One condition that could compel districts to contract out could be an obsolete bus fleet. If we let this be a condition that drives us to contract out, we could find ourselves in the same position as the districts that are currently contracting out; namely, subsidizing transportation operations to the tune of 70% and having to divert those dollars from the classroom where they belong. Other reasons for not contracting out include: Contractors offer lower costs at the inception of a business relationship with a district. As time passes and the district lets go of it organizational capacity to operate a transportation system (bus fleet, maintenance facility, routing, scheduling, etc), the contractor recognizes that and increases its costs to the district. The district is over a barrel, what can it do to rebuild that transportation system, so it pays what the contractor says it must. Not a good deal. The districts that contract out have minimal control of the staff that work for the contractor. A well regarded driver who performs their job duties may be let go by the contractor and there is no accountability to the school district for the action. On the other hand, a driver who is consistently problematic for the district may be retained by the contractor. This is not a good result for the students of the district. Contractors change ownership frequently. Wespoke with one district whose contractor had changed ownership three times in the last year. Responsibility for operations, adherence to contract language, billing and other fiscal matters became unclear as the management changed hands. One result was that the new owner was assessing a finance charge against the district when it had not informed the district of a new address to submit remittances to. Why would we sign up for more complications to our business model with no compensatory reduction in costs?