Editorial: Vote — and Give a Little More

Late this week, most of us got an envelope from County Auditor Milene Henley with our county ballot to vote on one issue: the Orcas Island School District Levy.

This measure isn’t more taxes, it’s the same amount “to support the District’s educational maintenance and operations” for the next four years. It’s kind of like renewing your driver’s license for the privilege of using our roads. It ensures our local public schools to continue to operate. Only an anarchist would vote no, for the public school system is the backbone of our lifestyle, government and economy on Orcas.

But beyond that, most of us — not all, some have the luxury of near-total independence from the island economy — are affected by the budget of Orcas schools. And as the school board knows by the pain in their guts, that budget is once again in crisis.

The school district is short $120,000 for this year, and has been looking down the barrel of this gun for the last year, although they were reasonably hoping that enrollment would sustain its teachers and programs. Some would say the solution is simple: cut expenses.

And so now the school board must pull the trigger to make up the deficit by cutting para-educators, the library, custodians, maintenance, business and facilities managers and non-represented staff.

The state apportionment for basic education to the Orcas School District, announced last Wednesday, is not adequate to make up the $120,000 shortfall.  Enrollment has not provided enough cushion to make up for unscheduled costs and cuts.

Our local economy has gotten leaner, meaning families have had to leave the island; that is true. It is also true that the state has undercut financial support to local,  Orcas education by $200,000 per year for the past four years, and the school district has managed to pare its expenses and keep on providing excellence in education. Also new state regulations this year required a new formula for “face-to-face” time for educators and students in the Alternative Learning Experience (including some 200+ Orcas home-schoolers). The School District has complied with this formulation, and had still seen a reduction to the ALE allotment by 10 to 20 percent.

Even with all these hits, the school district may dodge the bullet if property tax payments come in early rather than later this year.

But time is of the essence; it is now the 11th hour.

If, when you mail or deliver your ballot this week, you also consider casting a “financial vote” of a donation in any amount to the Orcas Island Education Foundation (OIEF) or to the OISD General Fund (557 School Road, Eastsound WA 98245), it is conceivable that $120,000 could be raised in the next five days.

Consider yourself as an individual supporting the system that supports over 600 students, dozens of supporting staff and hundreds of your neighbors, and give what seems fair.

The state decides and it is up to us locals to come up with the solution.

Locally, you can make a difference — this week.

(Disclosure: Editor Margie Doyle is a part-time employee of the Orcas Island School District)