Levy Committee Meeting Recap: September 9, 2025

The 2026 Levy Advisory Committee met for the first time on Tuesday, September 9, 2025. The committee is reviewing proposed funding options and providing feedback about the district’s three levy measures, which will expire unless they are renewed by voters. Superintendent Heather Tow-Yick will consider the group’s recommendation before presenting a proposed levy package to the School Board in October for their consideration.

“Thank you for your work, your brains, for your time and your passion,” Tow-Yick said in her welcome to the committee members. “This is a foundational meeting, but you’re also going to get into some content as well.”

Before the start of Tuesday’s meeting, committee members had the optional opportunity to ride on one of the district’s three new electric buses, which were purchased using grant funding and local levy dollars from the Transportation Levy voters approved in 2022. The grant money covered the difference between the cost of a regular diesel bus and the cost of an electric bus, as well as helping to pay for the charging infrastructure. The buses are not yet in use on any routes in the district because they were just delivered recently.

The committee, which includes students, parents and caregivers, community members, and staff members from throughout the district, heard information about school funding and tax rates. They also reviewed basic information about the district’s three expiring levy measures, which are:

• 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.

Staff members shared additional background information about the Transportation Levy and options for a levy renewal proposal, answered questions from committee members and collected their feedback to help adjust the Transportation Levy proposal.  As a framework for the discussion, committee members learned that the district is 110 square miles, and our bus drivers transport students more than 1.4 million miles per year. About 9,500 students ride a bus each morning and afternoon, and the district currently has 170 small and large buses in the fleet, including the three new electric buses. In general, the Transportation Levy supplements state funding, which is enough to pay for 40-60% of the cost of a diesel bus over about 13 years.

Our district replaces buses on a regular life-cycle schedule, typically every 13-15 years, to ensure safety and reliability. Buses are phased out as they age, and a consistent cycle prevents large spikes in replacement needs as well as keeping our fleet ready to serve students. The Transportation Levy that voters approved in 2022 was a one-year measure, which collected $3 million.

The draft proposal could include a recommendation to consider adding more electric buses to the district fleet, along with replacement diesel buses. Committee members asked questions about transportation data collection, additional details about diesel compared to electric buses, bus maintenance costs, other districts with electric buses, how adding electric buses could help reduce the district’s carbon footprint, and more. Committee members also asked staff to test the electric buses across the district.

The next committee meeting will be at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, September 16 at Maywood Middle School, 14490 168th Ave. S.E., Renton. Meetings are open to the public to observe. For future meeting dates or other information about the committee, visit our website.