With an upcoming district election on February 8 there are two important levies: The district is asking voters to continue funding for the Educational Programs and Operations Replacement levy and the Capital/Technology Replacement levy. These levies are not new taxes but replacement funding for previously approved funding that will expire.
School Districts are funded through federal, state, and local dollars. Local funding approved by voters pays for critical needs not fully indeed by the state such as staff positions and academic support. The first of these levies being voted on is the Educational Programs and Operations Replacement Levy. This levy pays for many different things such as:
Student opportunities:
Academics
Arts & Music
Athletics
Activities
STEM
High-Quality Instruction:
Support and training for our teachers and instructional assistants to provide students with high-quality instructions.
Academic and social-emotional support for students:
The pandemic has disrupted all of our students’ lives and their education. This levy ensures that our students get academic and social-emotional support.
Health and Safety:
The State only funds two nurses for the whole district, so this levy funds additional school nurses, medical para-educators, counselors and mental health therapists, social and emotional learning.
The State also only funds three school safety staff for our district. This levy funds for additional school safety staff.
School building maintenance:
Our custodians and maintenance teams have been working hard to keep classrooms and school areas clean and disinfected, this helps to fund additional custodians and maintenance workers as well as supplies and materials.
Transportation:
Many students take the bus to and from school. This levy helps fund a fleet of school buses and support vehicles and their drivers to get students to and from school safely.

The second of these levies is the Capital/Technology Replacement Levy. This levy has two parts to it, the Capital portion and the Technology portion. The capital portion of this levy helps funds:
Equal access, same experience: Every student will have the same opportunity to learn in well-functioning, safe and modern spaces.
Maintenance and mandatory upgrades: Maintenance must be performed on school facilities to increase their life expectancy and comply with state-mandated upgrades:
Renovate, modernize, and improve school facilities.
Educational, athletic, and infrastructure improvements.
Health of students and staff in schools; Safety & Security.
Energy efficiency.

The Technology portion of this levy funds:
Technology software, infrastructure, training, support staff.
Laptops, computers, tablets for all students and staff.
Adaptive technology to support special education students.
Home access resources like Wi-Fi hotspots.
Increased teacher and student access to technology at school.
Technology in the classroom.
Educational and office software licenses.
Technicians to support equipment installation and maintenance.
Coaching to support technology into curriculum, instruction, & assessment.
Plus… servers, storage, network switches, firewalls, routers, Wi-Fi, cybersecurity measures, and other infrastructure.

For more information about these levies visit:
https://www.rentonschools.us/departments/community-relations/2022-education-programs-maintenance-replacement-levy.