How the Current State Education Funding May Impact Orcas Island School District

–from Orcas Island School District (OISD) Superintendent Eric Webb to the School Board —

[Following] is a worst-case scenario in the event we are unable to lobby for adjustments and “fixes” to [EHB 2242] during the current 65th Annual Biennial Session.

Apportionment/Basic Ed Funding
Implementation of EHB 2242 does bring with it increased funding per Basic Ed unit/FTE over the next two years. Units/FTE for the district are created by the state’s prototypical model. The district’s enrollment is inputted into the state prototypical model, which generates the units/FTE that will be funded by the state under the title of Basic Ed.

For Orcas Island School District, the units are 23.708 for Certified Instructional Staff (CIS), 7.803 for Classified Staff (CLS), and 1.885 for Certificated Administrative Staff (CAS). The funding per
unit increases as follows:

for 2017-18

• CIS $36,521
• CLS $34,269
• CAS $62,199

for 2018-19

• CIS  $59,334
• CLS $ 39,976
• CAS  $79,128

for 2019-2020

• CIS  $64,000
• CLS $47,486
• CAS $98,257

This generates approximately $617,292 in new state funding for the district in 2018-2019.

Staff Mix
Over the years, the state has recognized that a district’s professional educational staff is paid on the basis of education and experience. Thus, the formula recognizes this cost increase by including a staff mix factor. Our staff mix factor for the district was 1.545.

The new funding bill eliminates this factor and $738,513 will be eliminated from the funding formula.

Regionalization
In EHB 2242, the state addresses the difference in regional differences in the cost of hiring staff by
implementing a regionalization factor that is applied to the state allocations for CIS, CLS, and CAS salaries.

This factor is based on the single-family residential value of each school district and “proximate school district” median single-family residential value (“proximate” within 15 miles of boundary). Regionalization factors/enhancements are 6%, 12%, or 18%, with re-basing taking place in 2023-24. Orcas Island was given a regionalization factor of 1.12.

Once applied to the three categories, we will see approximately $224,133 in new dollars for the district.

Enrichment Levy
Taxes levied for collection in the 2019 calendar year will be limited to $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed value of property in the district or $2,500 per “resident” pupil—whichever is less.

The district will collect approximately $1,474,553, which is well below the current levy collection of $2,100,000 for an overall reduction of $625,447.

Special Ed Funding
Application of a new definition of “resident student” will lead to additional loss of revenue in 2018-19. This will reduce funding by approximately $155,000 as it will only allow us to count resident students.

ALE Full Day Kindergarten
Changes in ALE (Alternative Learning Experience) Full Day Kindergarten indicate the elimination of $57,947 in funding.

Fund Balance
For 2017-18, we were able to apply $400,000 of our fund balance to combat legislative funding changes from 2017. This was possible due to our healthy fund balance built up over the last three years. In order to maintain a fund balance of 8% for the upcoming 18-19 school year, we will simply not have the capacity to apply carryover funds to offset the impact of EHB2242.

[Editor’s note: The Superintendent and School Board will continue to work with the State Legislature and Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to address the impact of state funding for basic education as defined by the EHB2242 ]