Students, staff members and citizens of Maple Valley are all awaiting the arrival of April 24. This is of course the day where the direction of the levy will be determined. If the levy does not pass, then many programs at Tahoma School District will be cut. This includes the removal of Advanced Placement programs, athletics/extracurricular activities, security of the school, special education and more.

With a new levy for the school district, the 8th-period schedule, AP classes and athletics/extracurricular activities will continue to be funded. However, one may ask how their taxes will be affected over these next two years. As the graph shows, over these next two years, the property tax will in fact decrease. While this may be true, these numbers may fluctuate in the near future, when this two year time period is over. Moreover, if the levy does not go through, taxes will fall at a more drastic rate. This relates to student life at Tahoma, because the increase in taxes could potentially cause several families to move in and out of the area. This could potentially affect the population size in the school itself.

Equally important, the distribution of the funds through the school currently is very important in regards to the levy. According to the Tahoma School District website, under “Budget impacts from levy failure,” the mention of MSOCS (Materials, Supplies and Other Costs) seems very vague and undescriptive. Considering the amount of money spent under this category ($11,888,207 on “Other staff costs.”) it seems as though they should specify what these funds are covering.

Instead of removing programs athletics and Advanced Placement programs, I believe there are different ways to fund these programs. My suggestion is for the Tahoma School District to use the surplus funds to continue the programs into the 2018-2019 school year. This will provide more time to work closely with the community and the new superintendent to find a solution that will work for everyone. Rerunning the levy months after it had failed seems to be a short-term fix that will not be as successful as a long-term solution.

Likewise, teachers salaries play an important role in the discussion of the levy.

The reason as to why the Tahoma School District provided this information was to show why the teachers’ salaries should be raised. What Tahoma School District does not provide in the chart above, is bonuses and stipend pay which would obviously increase the salaries listed. With this in mind, this chart does not justify their argument on teachers salaries.

In my opinion, I believe that comparing salaries to other schools is irrelevant. The reason why I say this is because other school districts may undergo different circumstances that can alter a teachers income, an example of this would be classroom sizes.

Above all, it is important to view multiple sides of the levy while considering different perspectives of other people’s views. This is something voters should consider before making their decision, including seniors who are of age to vote at Tahoma High School. Therefore, I highly encourage that everyone who is able to vote should do so by April 24.