||| FROM ERIC WEBB for ORCAS ISLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT |||
At the Legislative Conference in Olympia, State Superintendent Chris Reykdal talked about the “perfect storm” that will take place if the Legislature does not step up and provide necessary support to school districts. Federal ESSER funds that have “propped up” school districts throughout the pandemic are set to expire at the same time districts continue to address enrollment declines. The support for public education such as regionalization and experience factors for many districts will be reduced (or eliminated) if this Legislature does nothing to address the issue. Reykdal’s bottom line was that legislators need to be educated about this upcoming fiscal cliff.
Regardless of this warning and the numerous headlines from districts around the state announcing budget reductions due to the combination of enrollment decline, the sun setting on pandemic-era federal stabilization funding (ESSER) , declining levy stabilization funding, low Regionalization Factor funding, inflation, and more, the legislature has yet to acknowledge that the McCleary adjustment of 2018 has flaws and that K-12 Public Education has not received a significant funding increase since that time. Since the time of the McCleary Lawsuit, K-12 Public Education funding at the state level has dropped from 50% of the budget to approximately 44%, hardly making Paramount Duty the focus of the state.
As this 2023 Legislature passed its midpoint last week, we received word from Representative Ramel that the enrichment levy expansion bill, HB 1244 did not make the deadline for bills to pass the house of origin. As it turns out, the opposition introduced 11 amendments that signaled their intent to fight against funding schools in districts that do not have the ability to pass a levy, which led to the demise of the bill. You can read the details here.
In spite of this news, we continue to ask for your support in keeping the pressure on the legislators as we enter the critical weeks of budget writing in Olympia. You can help by visiting our https://supportislandschools.org/ to learn about and stay informed on regionalization and the levy cap that are impacting funding for our school districts. Please consider signing our petition (now with over 1,000 signatures and a goal of reaching 2,000 signatures) and contacting the listed legislators to share your opinion regarding fair and just funding for the island school districts of San Juan County.
Parallel to the Legislative Session taking place in Olympia, Orcas Island School District has begun its 2023-24 Budgeting Process. This process will take place over the next five months, and will require the district to meet significant milestones and dates in accordance with WAC and RCW language, OSPI guidelines, and Collective Bargaining Agreements. The OISD School Board, District Office staff, and I will meet twice each month during these five remaining months to ensure that adequate time is devoted to discussion, planning, and the building of this next year’s budget to adequately reflect OISD goals.
We at Orcas Island School District, like many other districts in the state, are needing to tighten our budget as enrollment has declined, the anticipated sun setting on pandemic-era federal stabilization funding (ESSER), declining levy stabilization funding, low Regionalization Factor funding, inflation, and more. For a deeper dive into K-12 Public Education funding, check out this article from the Seattle Times, Breaking down WA’s school funding formula.
In April, the District will host three budget information sessions for faculty and staff to attend, and updates will be provided to the community. At that point, we will be aware of the amount of funding from the legislative session, unfunded mandates, and IPD Factor; OISD will have also set our Enrollment Forecast for the 2023-24 school year. All of these components are critical in the creation of an accurate budget for next school year. As we navigate this time of limited budget resources, please feel free to reach out to me with any questions that you may have.
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It would be valuable to have some financial numbers of what the proposed but now now failed to advance legislation would have meant for the Orcas School District. After listening to some of the legislative hearings, this is far too complicated for the average citizen to even begin calculating what the difference in the existing reimbursement system is as compared to equalizing with school districts with 40,000+ students (i.e., Seattle) if I understand the intent of the legislative bill correctly.
After many years of bearing witness to our state’s budget process for public schools, and my the best adjective I can think of to describe it is BYZANTINE, meaning (courtesy of word hippo):
Detailed and complicated in design and planning, involving many carefully arranged elements- (doesn’t end there!) – complex, complicated, involved, intricate
elaborate, convoluted, tangled,knotty, sophisticated, involute, labyrinthian, tortuous, detailed, complicate, difficult, devious, impenetrable, confusing entangled, involuted,baffling, bewildering, fancy, Gordian, confused, puzzling..
My understanding is that there was an agreed upon need for public education to the tune of 3 billion when McLeary was decided. The legislature came up with 2 billion; the feds provided relief for Covid. Now, with inflation, public education is struggling again. It’s time for our state leadership to step up! Our local leadership is doing all it can to address this crisis.