Cheney School District will propose a bond and levy renewal on Feb. 10 to continue the previous levy and request improvements on Cheney High School.

Kassidy Probert, finance director of the Cheney School District, said the maintenance and operation levy is a renewal of a levy that was voted on in 2012, while the bond is strictly for building and capital projects such as remodeling and expansion.

According to the Cheney School District website, Cheney High School currently has a capacity for 900 students but serves 1,200 and has not expanded or renovated for 20 years. There are also no common areas, the hallways are congested, students eat lunch in the hallway due to an undersized cafeteria and there are eight portables in the parking lot for classes.

Probert said there will be two separate ballot measures for voters, one that is going to describe the maintenance and operation levy, the other will specifically be for the bond of the Cheney High School facility.

“The maintenance and operations levy funds our extracurricular programs, meaning all after-school sports, band and choir,” said Probert. “We would have to take a hard look at those programs because those are the key things they fund. … The levy is almost a quarter of our budget, so you’re talking about a large portion of the school district budget.”

Probert said the state funds one part-time nurse for the whole school district, but has nine schools with over 43,000 students total, so the district must employ three nurses to accomplish the requirements of the health plan for the students.

Tom Trulove, mayor of Cheney, said the school district passed practically every levy that was put forward in the past.

Cheney School District is a fairly large one, said Trulove. It encompasses not only the city limits of Cheney, but also goes to the edge of the Sunset Hills going into Spokane, Airway Heights and almost crosses over to Medical Lake. It is a very large school district where most of the voters are home or property owners in the area.

“Obviously we support the levies and the bonds because the quality of the community is directly related to the amount of education that goes on there,” said Trulove. “Cheney is an education town, with Eastern Washington University being our largest employer, and the Cheney school district is our second largest employer. That is a very important item in the community to have for a good education.”