The Camas community has a long standing tradition of partnering with schools in support of our students. As your superintendent, I get to see first hand the amazing work of staff, students, parents, and our community in ensuring our students have the best education possible. This would not happen without our community partnership.
Part of that partnership includes local funding. Public education funding in Washington state relies heavily on local taxes.
In Camas, the levies currently fund about 20 percent of total education costs. Our current school levies will expire in 2017.
It is time to ask for your renewed commitment to great community schools by supporting the Camas School District replacement levies on Feb. 14. Approving the proposed levies simply continue local funding so critical to the daily operations of our district.
The maintenance and operations replacement levy funds services and materials critical to overall student success. Examples include: smaller class sizes; special education services; accelerated programs for students; extracurricular programs, like athletics, band, drama and academic teams; student health and media services; student safety initiatives; teacher training; and basic needs such as maintenance, utilities, and textbook and curriculum materials.
Our technology levy provides for infrastructure like networks, servers and wifi, and also the devices our students use.
Levy funds help bridge the gap between state funding and what it actually costs to operate our schools.
Funding both the operations and technology replacement levies is a continued investment in our children’s future, an investment that has helped us build and sustain strong schools, one of our community’s greatest assets.
If you have any questions about the levies, please visit the district website or reach out to our staff.
Remember to vote — ballots are due Feb. 14.
Jeff Snell, Camas School District superintendent