Washington

School districts across Washington see bonds fail despite approval from a majority of voters

Published

2 years ago

February 22, 2024

School districts across Washington see bonds fail despite approval from a majority of voters

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After last week”s special election, school districts across Washington are wondering how to move forward after only one-third of the 21 proposed school bonds passed. The rest, even those that were approved by a majority of voters, failed.

This includes all five school bonds that Spokane County voters in various school districts weighed in on. Even though each bond garnered more than 50% of the vote, bond measures require a 60% supermajority to pass.

Reaching that threshold hasn’t usually been an issue for Spokane Public Schools — at least in recent history. Before last week, voters hadn’t turned down an SPS bond proposition in half a century. In the past 20 years, the district successfully passed four bond proposals, raising more than $1.1 billion (which came with an additional $150 million in state-matching funds).

In 2018, SPS asked its voters to approve a $495.3 million bond (it’s largest ask ever) to fund construction of three new middle schools, replacement of three others, updates to some schools’ aging infrastructure and construction of ONE Spokane Stadium in downtown Spokane. Despite rejecting the downtown stadium location in an advisory vote, voters still passed the 2018 bond measure with nearly 70% approval.

This year, SPS asked voters to approve a $200 million bond that would’ve funded replacement of two elementary schools (Adams and Madison) and significant updates to North Central High School. It also would’ve funded the construction planning for future school replacements. Though 56% of voters approved of it, the bond failed — making it the largest district in the state to have a bond fail this year.

The other school bonds on the February ballot in the county were in the Cheney, Deer Park, Riverside and West Valley school districts. Each failed despite garnering between 50% and 54% of the vote.

It’s not a total loss though. All but a few of the school levies on the ballot in Spokane County passed. Tax levies require only simple majority of “yes” votes to pass.

‘DEVASTATING’

“Obviously the results were quite disappointing,” says Beth Nye, principal of Adams Elementary School. “The word I’ve been using is ‘devastating.’”

Adams Elementary was one of the two schools that would have been replaced if this year’s bond had been successful. According to Nye, it’s the last school on the South Hill that hasn’t been modernized or replaced.

As it stands, Adams isn’t compliant with ADA standards because it doesn’t have an elevator. This means students living within the school’s boundaries who are unable to traverse the school’s multiple floors must attend another elementary school.

“We were all looking forward to this bond passing, which would lead us straight into our replacement starting in June,” Nye says. “Now, we’re dealing with that disappointment, and we can hopefully use this as a moment to help [the community] recognize that our schools do need to continue to have these funds so that we can make sure our facilities are kept up and modern for our students.”

All the pre-work for the school’s replacement was completed with funds from the $145 million 2015 bond, according to Ryan Lancaster, the district’s spokesperson.

“We were able to fund through that bond all of the design work and the site planning, so they were pretty much shovel ready,” he says. “That whole project would have gotten off the ground pretty quickly.”

There is about $50 million left over from previous bonds, which Lancaster says will help cover some of the smaller projects that the district had planned. It won’t include any projects at Adams.

“Typically, we go through a process every year where we have a chance to point out some of the smaller projects that we would benefit from,” Nye says. “But because Adams was on the list for a replacement, we were not focused on any smaller projects.”

The SPS board is scheduled to meet this week to discuss options for the district and Adams, Lancaster says.

‘AWFUL AND UNDEMOCRATIC’

Lancaster thinks that the biggest factors in the bond’s failure are the skyrocketing property values alongside the 60% approval threshold that bonds require.

There’s not much that school districts can do to affect these property values, so the focus has been on reducing the supermajority requirement that’s been in place since 1952. Still, there are many hoops to pass through if that’s ever going to change.

“[The supermajority requirement] is a massive barrier, especially since the culture war against public education,” says Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal. “It’s frustrating, and I think it’s awful and undemocratic.”

“Obviously the results were quite disappointing. The wordI’ve been using is ‘devastating.’”
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If bonds required only a simple majority for approval, all but three of this year’s bond measures in Washington would have passed. Additionally, over the past 10 years, only 45% of school bonds in the state were approved. If the supermajority requirement weren’t in place, 72% of the failed bonds would have passed, meaning about 85% of the total bond asks would have passed, according to Reykdal’s office.

“It’s always important to remember it’s not just local taxpayers’ funding,” Reykdal says. “A lot of state-matching funds won’t be going to these districts now.”

The state matching funds for the 11 school bonds that won more than 50% of the vote but less than the 60% supermajority totaled $227.1 million, Reykdal stated in a release.

Since the supermajority requirement is embedded in the Washington Constitution, a two-thirds majority vote is needed in both chambers of the Legislature to change the law. Then, if the Legislature did approve the change, the measure would go to state voters — with final passage requiring support from a simple majority.

Those who support having a supermajority threshold for school bonds say that lowering this threshold would be unfair to the taxpayers that the requirement is meant to protect.

“Most taxpayers can see a good plan and they can see a bad plan. Sixty percent protects them,” Jeff Daily of Port Orchard, a former South Kitsap School District board member, told legislators earlier this year, according to Crosscut.

Jeff Pack, a representative of Washington Citizens Against Unfair Taxes, also told legislators that they “just want to change the rules to fit your agenda.”

While constitutional changes must clear a relatively high hurdle, they’re not unheard of. In 2007, the state constitution was amended to allow school levies to pass with only a simple majority, rather than the previously required supermajority.

(This year, SPS passed its $300 million levy with about the same amount of voter approval as its bond. Central Valley School District passed both of its levies with about 52% approval, and Mead School District also passed its levy with almost 53% approval.)

That said, a change to school bond requirements looks unlikely this year. Senate Bill 5823, which would reduce the bond requirement to a simple majority, stalled in the Senate Ways and Means Committee, where it died for the session. ♦

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Washington

Ginger’s Journey: Walking from Washington State to Washington, D.C.

Published

11 hours ago

December 17, 2025

Press Room

Ginger’s Journey: Walking from Washington State to Washington, D.C.

Imagine setting out, on foot, for a journey not knowing how long it would take. Now imagine doing it with two animals as traveling partners from Washington State to Washington, D.C.

“Now I’ve started this leg of the journey in Morton, Washington where I was spiritually requested to go to Washington, D.C. and sing the song ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon on the Capitol steps,” says Jacob Holiday.

Jacob Holiday is on his way across America so he can sing a song he says signifies peace in the hopes, he says, of ending violence everywhere.

“I want so much peace. Cops would no longer carry firearms. We’re going to send the militaries of every country, I don’t care which one you’re talking about but every country, home to go to sleep. I don’t care what they do. But I want all this violence, everything, all this violence to stop.”

He has two wagons and his traveling companions are a dog and a goat. Holiday started in Washington State in July and he’s not worried about how long his hike across America will take.

His multi-state trek has seen him encounter a lot along the way, including a run-in with a bear.

He carries food for himself and his dog and his goat on carts that he says weigh a couple hundred pounds. Besides necessities, Holiday has one thing he’d greatly appreciate receive being able to buy as he continues his mission.

Holiday says he knows his mission isn’t an easy one, and he uses it as a metaphor for life as a whole.

We caught up with Holiday in the early part of November on a 70-degree day in Cambridge, Nebraska then spoke to him again a few days later in the rain as he headed east on Highways 6 and 34, so no telling how far he’s gotten now.

After we met with Holiday, we did notify the local sheriff to perform a welfare check, but we’re told Holiday wanted to continue his walk with his Capitol Steps goal still ahead of him. We also offered him food for himself and his animals, which he declined saying he had enough food on his carts.

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Washington

Washington state flooding damage profound but unclear, governor warns

Published

23 hours ago

December 17, 2025

Press Room

Washington state flooding damage profound but unclear, governor warns

The extent of the damage in Washington state is profound but unclear after more than a week of heavy rains and record flooding, according to the state’s governor, Bob Ferguson.

A barrage of storms from weather systems stretching across the Pacific has dumped close to 2ft (0.6 metres) of rain in parts of the state, swelling rivers far beyond their banks and prompting more than 600 rescues across 10 counties.

More high water, mudslides and power outages were in the forecast. Elevated rivers and flood risk could persist until at least late this month, according to the National Weather Service. Wind and flood watches and warnings are expected in much of the north-west for the next couple of days as storms bring rain, heavy mountain snow and high winds.

As of Tuesday, authorities had recorded one death – of a man who drove past warning signs into a flooded area – but key highways were buried or washed out, entire communities had been inundated, and saturated levees had given way. It could be months before State Route 2, which connects cities in western Washington with the Stevens Pass ski area and the faux Bavarian tourist town of Leavenworth across the mountains, can be reopened, Ferguson said.

“We’re in for the long haul,” Ferguson said at a news conference. “If you get an evacuation order, for God’s sakes, follow it.”

It won’t be until after waters recede and landslide risk subsides that crews will be able to fully assess the damage, he said. The state and some counties are making several million dollars available to help people pay for hotels, groceries and other necessities, pending more extensive federal assistance that Ferguson and Washington’s congressional delegation expect to see approved.

According to the governor’s office, first responders had conducted at least 629 rescues and 572 assisted evacuations. As many as 100,000 people had been under evacuation orders at times, many of them in the flood plain of the Skagit River north of Seattle.

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LIVE UPDATES: Washington flooding, road closures, evacuations

Published

2 days ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

LIVE UPDATES: Washington flooding, road closures, evacuations

SEATTLE – As more heavy rainfall is expected in western Washington this week, the region remains under a Flood Watch, with road closures, evacuations, and power outages persisting.

A Flash Flood Warning was activated and later canceled for parts of south King County after a Green River levee failed. The levee has since been repaired, patched by sandbags after nearby businesses were evacuated.

Desimone Levee breech. (Dana Ralph, Kent Mayor)

Keep reading for live weather updates for Tuesday, Dec. 16.

8:05 a.m.: Resources available in Pacific, WA

Valley Regional Fire listed several resources on behalf of the city of Pacific:

Warm location that will be serving coffee and breakfast: Senior Center and the gym at the Pacific Community Center (100 3rd Ave SE)
Auburn Community and Events Center (910 9th ST SE) is open with Red Cross resources
The Filipino American Community of Puget Sound in Algona (103 6th Ave N) is also offering a warm location
Alpac Elementary School (310 Milwaukee Blvd N) parking lot is available in addition to restrooms.
Sandbags are available at 224 County Line Road

7:42 a.m.: Puget Sound Energy crews make significant progress in restoring power outages in WA

Puget Sound Energy (PSE) crews made great progress overnight after more than 50,000 people in western Washington lost power on Monday. As of 7:42 a.m. on Tuesday, there are only 56 outages impacted 1,343 customers.Snohomish PUD is reporting outages impacting 490 people. Clallam County PUD is reporting 0 outages.

7:40 a.m.: SR 167 remains closed between Kent and Auburn

‘Go Now’ evacuation in Auburn

Flooding from the Green River is forcing Level 3 ‘Go Now’ Evacuation order in the area between South 277th and north of 42nd, and east of SR-167 and west of Green River.

The Washington State Department of Transportation said both directions of State Route 167 remain closed on Tuesday between South 212th Street in Kent and 15th Avenue West in Auburn due to flooding.

Drivers are advised to take alternate routes and expect delays on I-5 and I-405.

WSDOT’s David Rasbach told Good Day Seattle there was still water over the roadway in the area.

State Route 167 remains closed between Kent and Auburn.

7:30 a.m.: Level 3 ‘Go Now’ Evacuation in Auburn, WA

There are still evacuation orders in effect in Auburn, Washington. This flooding from the Green River is forcing Level 3 ‘Go Now’ Evacuation order in the area between South 277th and north of 42nd, and east of SR-167 and west of Green River.

There are also Level 2 ‘Get Set’ Evacuations in several neighborhoods along both sides of the Green River, including areas near 104th Avenue Southeast, Pike Street Northeast and Pike Place Northeast – south of the Auburn Golf Course. Anyone who lives there should be prepared to leave at a moment’s notice if things get worse.

Officials say evacuees seeking shelter can go to the Auburn Community and Event Center and Ray of Hope Shelter in Auburn.

7:24 a.m.: Person dead after driving car onto flooded roadway in Snohomish County

A driver died overnight in Snohomish after reportedly bypassing road closure signs and plunging into a flooded ditch near East Lowell Larimer Road.

7:03 a.m.: Level 3 ‘Go Now’ Evacuation in Concrete, WA; School district closed

There is a Level 3 ‘Go Now’ Evacuation order in place for the Erikson Road neighborhood in Concrete, Washington.

The town says they found a landslide there last week, and with more rain and wind coming, they are asking people to leave the area.There is also an upgraded Level 2 ‘Get Set’ Evacuation near Burpee Hill Road that is impacting 32 homes. This comes after a landslide in the area on Monday.

The Red Cross opened a shelter for people impacted by those evacuations at the Mount Baker Presbyterian Church off Main Street.

County officials say pets can be accommodated.Schools in the Concrete School District are closed Tuesday. The district will continue to monitor conditions to make decisions for later this week.You can find more school closures across western Washington here.

6:20 a.m.: How you can help

GoFundMe has updated their list of verified fundraisers and non-profits providing help to those affected by the flooding.

To donate to Washington and Pacific Northwest flood relief fundraisers, click here.

6:09 a.m.: Flooding impacting local blood supply

The flash flood evacuation from the Green River levee breech is near Bloodworks Northwest’s Renton Lab and Donor Center.

Officials say the stored blood supply remains safe, but the donor center is closed.

Critical blood storage, supplies and vehicles were moved to a different location, and upcoming blood drives may be affected.

Bloodworks Northwest said more than 300 potential donations have been canceled since last week, which created a shortage.

The company is asking donors of all blood types are needed. To donate, click here.

6:04 a.m.: Evacuation efforts in Pacific, WA

Valley Regional Fire Authority crews are working to help residents evacuate in Pacific.

Officials said about 100 residents have been evacuated and no injuries have been reported.

The affected areas primarily are S of 1st, and E of Butte, S of Stewart, and Skinner Road.

5:20 a.m.: Tracking school closures and delays

Several school districts in western Washington announced delays.

Here is the latest list.

5 a.m.: New evacuation orders in Pacific

Early Tuesday morning, police in Pacific announced after 1:30 a.m. there was a Level 3 “Go Now” evacuation order due to a levee break on the White River.

The evacuation order affects the areas east of Butte and South of Third.

National Weather Service Seattle issued a Flash Flood Warning before 1:45 a.m. Tuesday.

Tuesday weather forecast

Heavy rain, gusty winds and mountain snow returns to western Washington by Tuesday evening, with the potential to push river levels even higher and knock out power to thousands due to downed trees.

The Skagit, Snoqualmie, Green, White, Cedar, Cowlitz, Stehekin and Skykomish rivers are back under Flood Warnings.

A Flood Watch remains in effect for parts of Western Washington through Thursday afternoon. (FOX 13 Seattle)

A Winter Storm Warning and Winter Weather Advisory will be in effect Tuesday afternoon through late Wednesday for heavy mountain snow.

Green River levee fails, Flash Flood Warning

A Flash Flood Warning was activated on Monday after a Green River levee failed in Tukwila, prompting evacuations in areas downstream from the levee break.

While the warning was canceled just before Monday evening, the Desimone levee breach was at one point described as “life-threatening” and reportedly threatened nearby structures.

Most of western Washington remains under a Flood Watch through Thursday due to the rainy forecast ahead, along with already high river levels.

Road closures in Western Washington

Several critical roadways across western Washington are closed due to weather effects, including highway washouts that will continue to impact travel.

On Interstate 90, eastbound lanes of the freeway are closed near North Bend due to a landslide. Additionally, though not weather related, all westbound lanes are closed near Cle Elum due to construction of the Bullfrog Road overpass.

U.S. 2 Stevens Pass is closed at Tumwater Canyon after a section of the highway was washed out by flooding last week. It’s blocked between Skykomish and Leavenworth, and there is no estimated time for when the road will reopen. Highway 410 is also closed at Enumclaw due to a washout.

SR 410 washout (Enumclaw Police Department)

MORE NEWS FROM FOX 13 SEATTLE

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Wild Waves Theme Park to shut down in 2026

Charter bus breaks down in Leavenworth, leaving dozens stranded

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Washington State Ferries seeks new owners for aging fleet castoffs

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The Source: Information in this story came from the websites and social media pages of various agencies and emergency management departments across western Washington, and FOX 13 Seattle reporting.

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