During the end of May and the beginning of June, new ActiveBoards were installed and are still being installed in schools through the Northshore School District (NSD).
Back in 2018 a technology levy was introduced to families and staff in the district. Agreeing and signing that levy meant setting aside $30 million just to use solely on technological purposes, and keeping up to date with that. The projected tax rate value for per $1,000 of assessed property value is projected to be $0.40 in the upcoming year. “They try to estimate that value and tax rate varies depending on how many new homes are being built. When we went out in 2022 with the renewed tech levy, even more people moved into new houses, we can’t collect more money so the $30 million gets spread out between more people and their taxes go down,” explained Amy Cast, NSD board president. Every four years the levy renews.
This technology levy “provides funding for student and staff computing devices, teacher professional development, software license subscriptions, digital curriculum resources, classroom presentation systems, Instructional Technology staff, and Operational Staff and Systems,” said Chris Brenengen, the Directory of Business Operations for NSD. However, unexpectedly, the new ActiveBoards are not the result of the 2018 technology leavy. Instead, “these were funded from the 2022-2026 Technology Levy, which will be up for renewal in February of 2026,” said Brenengen. Some specific examples of how it is used is in the recently built elementary school: Ruby Bridges, “in the playground they have icons up in the playground so that students who are hard of hearing or perhaps if they’re on the autistic spectrum, can tap it and communicate. So basically it’ll say the words for the student even if they physically can’t speak very well,” elaborated Cast.
As for any additional rounds of funding that are expected to be seen from the 2018 Technology Levy, the final rounds of collecting funds from the 2022 renewal are happening currently. “We go to approve technology levies on a 4-year cycle. The next levy will be on the February 2026 ballot. 2018 levies were collected in the calendar years 2019-2022. The 2022 levies were collected in calendar year’s 2023-2026,” said Brenengen. $30 million being set aside just for technological uses includes the ActiveBoards.
Further examination of district budget publication showed that we spent a little over $52 million on Purchased Services. Brenengen explains that “this total budgeted for purchase services in the General Fun and has a wide range of expenditures. This would include things like Running Start Tuition, legal services, audit fees, software maintenance contracts, utilities, insurance and Special Ed out-of-district placements.” And example of Special Ed out-of-district placements would be “programs put on by the Edmonds school district for students who are deaf. So we contract with the Edmonds school district, and so because their program’s great, that would be a purchased service as we are literally sending them fees so our students can participate,” said Cast.
The new ActiveBoards have successfully been installed in most schools in the district so far. They are an upgrade from the other TVs due to the cool features they have. For example, for band, orchestra and even choir, the board has score notation on it, therefore being able to directly write music on the board/score. All the results from the Technology Levies in our district.