Committee Meets About Educational Programs & Operations Levy

The Educational Programs and Operations Levy, which represents about 17% of the district’s budget, was the focus of the third meeting of the 2026 Levy Advisory Committee on September 24.

The Educational Programs and Operations (EP&O) Levy is one of the district’s three current levy measures, which will expire unless they are renewed by voters. Nearly every school district in Washington state uses local levy dollars to cover the gap between the funding that the state and the federal government provide, and the true cost of school district operations.

As part of the levy renewal review, the School Board asked staff to work closely with the committee to continue funding effective programs while exploring improvements and innovations, all within the current tax rate. Our district helps attract families and support property values, and while it does not set assessed values, the district recognizes the importance of tax sensitivity and will work to keep the projected tax rate stable.

Our school district's three expiring levy measures, which were approved by voters in 2022, include:

• Educational Programs and Operations Levy (EP&O): This four-year levy provides about 16.6% of the district’s 2025-26 budget, including funding for special education, classroom teachers, nurses, student programs and more.
• Capital Levy: This four-year levy helps pay for Technology and Critical Repairs.
• Transportation Levy: This one-year levy helps pay for school buses.

Students, parents and caregivers, staff members and community members from across the district are serving as volunteers on the committee, which is reviewing proposed funding options and providing feedback to the superintendent.

Before the September 24 meeting, committee members had the opportunity to hear from a panel of staff members about health services and mental health supports that the district funds using local levy dollars from the EP&O Levy.

Chief of Finance and Operations Martin Turney shared that the EP&O Levy supports three primary priority areas from the district’s Strategic Plan: Student Well-Being, Academic Opportunities and Organizational Effectiveness.

“Everything that we're going to talk about ties to those areas, and these are flexible by design,” Turney said.

Many of the programs and services that committee members heard about during the panel discussion have direct ties to the Student Well-Being priority area, such as nurses and mental health supports. Director of Health Services Laura Carmichael, Director of Counseling and Student Well-Being Noah Westerberg, Issaquah High School Principal Erin Connolly and Beaver Lake Middle School Principal Kathryn Coffin talked about how those services are critical to helping students access their education.

“The work that I'm most excited about is proactive work and trying to catch kids before they get into crisis,” Connolly said, noting that Westerberg and teams of counselors have been meeting with staff. “It's great for the day-to-day and also for the long term.”

Alaina Sivadasan, Executive Director of Equity, Belonging and Family Partnerships, shared about counseling and mental health supports including counselors from Swedish and Youth Eastside Services, which are funded in part by the EP&O Levy. “This is a critical need in our schools,” Sivadasan said. “In fact, when we talk to our caregivers and our families in our community, accessing mental health services is the number one requested need that our families share with us. This is something that is not (fully) funded by the state, but it is a number one need for our families.”

The district also pays for eight full-time equivalent (FTE) nursing and health room specialist positions above the state’s funding level. These positions support student health, safety, and chronic condition management; provide immediate response for illness, injury, and medical needs; and ensure compliance with state health requirements in schools.

Nurses will often help families access services to help students with a wide variety of needs such as glasses to sports physicals to life saving medications that allow students to access their education. “Nurses go above and beyond and persist in working to ensure the student can get to school,” said Laura Carmichael, Director of Health Services. “That student will usually never know how hard that nurse has worked to get them to school and that’s exactly how it should be."

Another way that levy dollars help support the Student Well-Being priority area is by supplementing state funding for Safety and Security officers, a district patrol position and a Director of Safety and Security. “This team provides daily campus safety checks. They respond to incidents. You never know what's going to happen,” said Jason Morse, Executive Director of Operations. “In a school district our size, they are on call and ready to respond, but they also do a tremendous amount of active work, helping with additional supervision, securing our campuses, checking perimeters daily, and really building our emergency response and our readiness.”

Other district programs and services that receive levy dollars and have direct ties to Student Well-Being include behavior supports, guidance counseling, Family Partnership and Equity work, VOICE Mentor Program, and clubs, sports and activities.

Academic Opportunities

The EP&O Levy also supports the Strategic Plan priority area of Academic Opportunities, by helping fund programs such as the 7-period day in our high schools, has helped pay for Summer School, and also for secondary interventions such as math labs, study skills, guided studies, supplemental literacy interventions. Other programs and services receiving EP&O funds that support Academic Opportunities for students include:

• Dual Language Program
• Gibson Ek High School
• Legally required but not fully funded Special Education services
• Materials, supplies and operating costs above state funding

Organizational Effectiveness

The third priority area of the Strategic Plan that local dollars from the EP&O Levy supports is Organizational Effectiveness. These include:

• Additional teachers and compensation above allocation levels to:
  • Attract and retain high quality teachers
  • Support smaller class sizes that allow for more individualized attention
  • Offer more personalized instruction and support for students
  • Expand course offerings and electives (e.g. 7-period high school day)
  • Provide better support for diverse learner needs
• Additional teacher workdays to:
  • Provide more time for curriculum planning and collaboration
  • Strengthen professional development aligned to district initiatives
  • Consistently implement instructional practices across schools
  • Improve student outcomes through better-prepared teachers
• Sick leave buy-back
• Substitute teachers
• Substitute classified employees
• Custodial and maintenance employees
• Transportation operational costs

At the fourth levy committee meeting, members will review materials from the prior sessions, then provide their recommendations to the superintendent for each of the three current levy measures. All committee meetings are open to the public to observe. The meeting is from 6-8 p.m. on Tuesday, September 30 at the district Administration Building. More information about the committee, including recaps of the first two meetings, is available on our website.

Above and below: Members of the 2026 Levy Advisory Committee discuss the Educational Programs and Operations Levy.