On April 26, 2022, voters in Issaquah approved levy funding for the Issaquah School District, opening up countless new educational opportunities in our community.

This vote had many people in our community questioning: what is a levy? Simply put, a levy is a voluntary local tax, and community members vote to determine whether they would like to pay for it or not. A school levy is strictly used to better our education systems; this year the Issaquah School District hopes to specifically direct these levies towards bettering education programs, technology and construction, and transportation for students. 

Issaquah’s levies started out strongly with a 54% approval rating of the Educational Programs & Operations (EP&O) Levy.

“We really don’t know what the district is planning on doing with the money from proposition one,” computer science teacher Jeffrey Woffinden said, “but we have high hopes they will help out with computer science and photography. It’s definitely a step in the right direction, and I hope it has a positive impact on the students.” 

Additionally, Woffinden stood strongly with the Technology and Capital levy that received a 51% approval rating.

“We need easier access to technology for our students. We have laptop carts that rotate around rooms and there’s never enough of them.”

Woffinden firmly believes this shortage of technology is an important topic to address.

“This shortage of laptops doesn’t exactly impact me teaching computer science, but all the classrooms deserve to have accessible technology to help our students.”

And speaking of accessibility, photography teacher Benjamin Hood spoke up about the Transportation Levy that passed with a 62% approval. 

“This was the levy with the highest rating, and I think this really speaks volumes on how the district needs more services that cater to different families.” 

School levies strive to help our schools improve, and schools depend on these levies to continue with many of their programs. As ISD continues to increase in population, the majority of the community believes that continuing to pass levies will make our schools better places to learn.