A dozen Spokane-area school districts are placing levies on Feb. 13 ballots, and two districts also will have construction bond measures up for votes. Now, it’s as important as ever to support local K-12 education, especially during the current transitional period in which state Supreme Court’s McCleary decision mandates will be phased in, possibly at some expense to traditional funding sources.

In two such examples, the Central Valley School District and Spokane Public Schools have measures high on our radar simply because of their magnitude. Both are well-planned requests for community investments in crucial local education needs without raising taxes beyond current levels.

The $129.9 million 2018 construction bond measure proposed by the Central Valley School District would replace an expiring bond, essentially extending the current tax rate. CVSD also is requesting to extend a maintenance-and-operations levy.

CVSD rightly can boast delivery upon its promise on a $121.9 million bond measure that district voters approved in 2015.

In addition to its construction projects initially promised under that measure, the district was able to take on more projects by leveraging $20.9 million in class-size reduction funds from the state.

Major projects proposed by CVSD under the bond measure include a third high school, a new middle school, and a complete renovation of Horizon Middle School.

The need is there: More than 4,200 students are attending two high schools originally designed to serve 3,200 students. The new high school, to be located at 16th Avenue and Henry Road, would increase the district’s high school capacity by 1,600 students.

The new middle school, which would be located in the Telido Station area, would serve 600 students.

Horizon Middle School, which has a 400 student capacity, would be modernized and expanded to serve 600 students.

Spokane Public Schools will have an educational programs-and-operations levy. The levy would assess $32 million in 2019, $34 million in 2020, and $38 million in 2021.

Because the state is increasing funding for basic education, the measure on the February ballot would go into effect in 2019 with a rate capped at $1.50 per $1,000 valuation—significantly below the current rate of $3.77 per $1,000 valuation, which will be assessed through 2018.

That levy will support teachers for additional course offerings, elementary content specialists in science, technology, music and art, as well as other staffing.

Other programs and resources supported through the levy would include special education programs, campus resource officers, and intramural activities.

The districts have done what they’ve said they were going to do with funding provided by earlier ballot measures, and they’ve demonstrated the need for what they propose to do with their current funding requests without raising taxes.

The SPS and CVSD measures proposed by other districts represent educational investments that deserve our support.