Sumner-Bonney Lake School District
Pierce County, WA · Suburb · grades PK–12 · 10,743 students across 15 schools
- Spends $16,190 per student in operating costs — $14,568 once local price levels are accounted for.
- 66.0% of every operating dollar reaches instruction.
- 32.3% of revenue is raised locally, mostly from property tax.
The money
| Per student, as reported | $16,190 |
|---|---|
| Per student, price-adjusted Divided by the local BEA price level, so it can be set against a district anywhere else. | $14,568 |
| Per student, excluding transport | $14,059 |
| Capital spending per student Buildings and land. Lumpy by nature. | Locked |
| Total revenue | Locked |
| Total current spending | Locked |
| Local price level (US = 100) Metro-area index. | 111.1 |
Where the money goes
- Instruction 59.1% Locked
- Instructional staff support 6.9% Locked
- Student support 9.1% Locked
- Operations & maintenance 7.8% Locked
- Transportation 3.5% Locked
- Food service 2.2% Locked
- School administration 5.9% Locked
- District administration 1.0% Locked
- Other support 3.6% Locked
- Other current 3.0% Locked
What the money buys
| Students per teacher A staffing ratio, not an average class size. Real classes are larger than this everywhere. | 19.1 |
|---|---|
| Students per counsellor | Locked |
| Cents of each operating dollar reaching classrooms | 66.0% |
| Administration share | 6.9% |
| Child poverty rate Census SAIPE estimate for children 5–17 inside the district boundary. | 5.9% |
| Enrolment change, 5 years | +4.3% |
Stability and risk
No stability flags raised.
Against the rest of WA
| Sumner-Bonney Lake School District | WA average | |
|---|---|---|
| Per student, as reported | $16,190 | $20,913 |
| Reaching classrooms | 66.0% | 61.1% |
| Local share of revenue | 32.3% | 19.5% |
Average across 294 WA districts we hold scores for, unweighted by size.
Districts most like this one
Nearest neighbours on size, setting, poverty and grade span — not on spending. These are the fair comparisons, so we made each one a link.
Enrolling a child
Read off this district’s own enrolment page. Every “required” below links to the sentence it came from.
Sumner-Bonney Lake School District
Enrollment - Sumner-Bonney Lake School District
Registration runs through FinalForms. Read August 25, 2026.
Is a seat at your zoned school guaranteed?
Living in the zone may not get you the seat
-
If your child is assigned to an overflow school, the school registrar and transportation department will work with your family to provide transportation and support throughout the process.
the district’s page this was read from -
Families affected by overflow placements will be notified in late August.
the district’s page this was read from
Quoted from this district’s own pages, read August 25, 2026. Wording changes between enrolment seasons — the school office is the only authority on whether a grade is full today.
- This is the district’s own published wording, not our summary of it. Policies are rewritten between enrolment seasons and a page can be out of date the day after we read it — the school office is the only authority on whether a particular grade at a particular school is full right now.
- A warning here is about capacity, not about your address. It does not mean your child will be moved; it means the district has told you in writing that it may move them.
- Required the page says so, and the sentence is quoted.
- Mentioned only it comes up, but not as a requirement — often a sentence saying the district cannot demand it.
- Not mentioned we read the page and it was not on it. That is not the same as "not required".
- Page not read we have no enrolment page for this district.
Documents to bring
| Sumner-Bonney Lake School District | |
|---|---|
| Proof of residency | Required “Verification of Residency:” |
| Proof of age (usually a birth certificate) | Not mentioned |
| Immunisation records | Required “Certificate of Immunization Status (CIS)” |
| Physical examination | Not mentioned |
| Dental, vision or hearing screening | Not mentioned |
| Tuberculosis test | Not mentioned |
| Records from the previous school | Not mentioned |
| IEP or 504 plan | Not mentioned |
| Custody or guardianship paperwork | Not mentioned |
| Parent or guardian photo ID | Not mentioned |
| Home language survey | Not mentioned |
| Emergency contact information | Not mentioned |
| Proof of income | Not mentioned |
| Social security number Asked for by some districts. It is not required to enrol, and a school may not refuse a child who does not provide one. We list it because districts ask, not because you must answer. | Not mentioned |
How enrolling works
Locked 11 steps of the enrolment process — deadlines, appointments, proof of residency — are not shown. What to bring is above, and stays free.
- A blank row means the requirement did not appear on the page we read. It does not mean the district will not ask for it — published lists are routinely incomplete, and the registrar has the final word.
- Requirements change every enrolment season. Check the district’s own page, linked above, before you gather anything.
- A district cannot condition enrolment on your child’s immigration status: under Plyler v. Doe (1982) every child resident in the district is entitled to a free public education. If a district asks for something that would reveal status, you are not obliged to provide it.
- If your family is in temporary or shared housing, the McKinney-Vento Act lets a child enrol immediately without the residency and records documents listed here. Ask for the district’s homeless liaison by name.
Who decides, and what it costs you
Every band above this one asks what this district spends. This one asks who chose to.
Sumner-Bonney Lake School District
The district levies its own school tax
This district raises property tax in its own name. Who sets the rate varies by state — an elected board in some, a public vote in others — but the levy is the school system’s own, and it is the part of a tax bill that school politics moves most directly.
| Sumner-Bonney Lake School District | |
|---|---|
| School property tax levied, per student Only for districts that levy in their own name. Blank where the county or town levies instead — see the cards above, and read the next row. | $5,306 |
| Appropriated by the county or town, per student What the parent government handed the schools, for dependent systems. This is a general appropriation, not solely property tax. | — |
| Property tax as a share of all revenue How much of the budget rides on local property values, and therefore on local votes. | 25.8% |
| Long-term debt already owed, per student The balance at the end of the year, for scale. Repaid over decades, so it is a commitment made by earlier boards rather than a bill arriving now. | Locked |
| Debt service as a share of spending Interest plus principal repaid this year, against total spending. This is the part of the debt that is being paid now, out of money that would otherwise reach a classroom. | Locked |
| New long-term debt issued, per student Money borrowed during fiscal year 2024, as reported to the federal survey. What this figure does and does not tell you is set out under the table. | $0 |
- Sumner-Bonney Lake School District: issued no new long-term debt in fiscal year 2024. That is a reported zero, not a gap in the data.
- A figure in the borrowing row is not a bond voters approved. The federal survey records debt issued, and that includes refinancing existing debt at a new rate — which changes nothing about what a district owes — as well as certificates of participation and lease-revenue debt, which in many states a board can issue with no referendum at all. To find out what was actually on a ballot, check the county election office.
- Debt is repaid over decades. A large balance per student is a commitment made by earlier boards and earlier voters, not a bill arriving this year. The debt service row above it is the part being paid now.
Who sits on the board
Sumner-Bonney Lake School District board of education
- Kevin Lewis — School Board President
- Bill Gaines — Vice President
- J.B. Smith — District 1
- Tom Watson — District 2
- Erin Markquart — District 5
- The public may speak: “Public Comment”
- Members are elected: “Our School Board members are elected by the voters within the Sumner-Bonney Lake School District to serve 4-year terms.”
Read from the district’s own board page on 2026-08-24. Boards change; the district’s page is the current record, not ours.
Funding measures on the ballot
Sumner-Bonney Lake School District
$1.3B approved by voters across 7 measures. 3 of these outcomes were published by the state but never certified.
| Election | Measure | Amount | Yes | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-11-05 | Bond | $732M | 64.2% | Passed |
Locked 7 earlier measures in this district’s history are not shown.
From the state’s own election results file. Latest election on record: 2026-08-04.
What this state publishes: Bonds, capital levies and enrichment levies, as OSPI reports them. Washington bonds need 60% yes and a validation turnout; levies on the same ballot need 50%.
WA published no results for 2022 and 2023 on the page we read, so a measure put to voters in those years would not appear here. That is a gap in the state’s own publishing, not a year we skipped.
- A vote share is not an outcome. What it takes to carry varies by state and by measure — in some states a bond needs a supermajority and a minimum turnout while a levy on the same ballot needs half, so a clear majority can still lose. Every outcome shown here is copied from the state’s own results file, and the rule that applied is stated with the coverage above. Where that file stated no outcome we show the vote share and no verdict, rather than working one out from the percentage.
- These are the measures a district put to its voters, not its whole tax bill. A property tax bill also carries county, city and state levies that have nothing to do with schools, and in most states a school board can issue some kinds of debt with no vote at all.
Unlock every figure for Sumner-Bonney Lake School District
The verdict, the headline dollar, the funding shares, who is served and every comparability caveat are free above, and stay free. What is behind the lock is the detail you would want before acting on any of it:
- capital spending per student, total revenue and total current spending
- the ten-line per-student breakdown of where the money goes
- counsellor and administrator ratios, and the total salary bill
- the enrolment process — deadlines, appointments and proof of residency
- the debt behind the risk flags — per student, and as a share of spending
- the full ballot history: 7 more bonds and levies, with the amounts
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