The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

A little over a year ago, voters in the Dayton School District soundly defeated a $25 million bond levy measure that would have funded a major renovation to Dayton’s school facilities. The message was clear: taxpayers weren’t willing to pay for a project that they deemed much more luxurious than what the schools needed to do their job of educating our kids.

This month the Dayton schools are again asking voters to approve a levy measure, but on a much smaller scale. The district is asking for $800,000 in a two-year capital levy that will pay for some basic maintenance and improvements to the school facilities.

Our story on Page 1 gives an overview of the levy measure, and an outline of how the money will be spent is shown at right.

“The levy addresses safety, security and efficiency needs,” Dayton Schools Superintendent Doug Johnson said when the levy measure was announced.

Planned projects include replacement of sidewalks and playground asphalt that are safety hazards; replacement of entry doors and the communications system, to provide a much higher level of security in the buildings; replacing roofs on the high school and shop buildings that are at the end of their lifespan; replacing the front wall of the gym and installing a campus-wide irrigation system, both of which will significantly reduce utilities and labor costs.

No one could say, with a straight face, that these are luxuries. Providing a safe and secure facility for our kids is paramount. Replacing roofs and making improvements that reduce operating costs just make sense.

It’s unfortunate that state funding doesn’t cover the cost of keeping our school facilities up to date, but that’s reality. As a community, we owe it to the kids who live here to make sure that happens.

Last year, I heard many comments from local residents that they feel our school board, administrators and staff are not doing an adequate job of educating our kids. Well, that’s debatable.

What’s not debatable is that the funding the district is asking for to improve the facilities is NOT a reward to the people who work there for a job well done. Withholding funds until we’re convinced that the schools’ performance is greatly improved is a loser’s game. The opposite will happen. The more our school facilities fall behind and fall apart, the sooner our good employees will leave, and the harder it will be to find good new ones.

Let’s give Dayton’s schools a chance to be as good as they can be by supporting this month’s capital levy.