School District Could Lose All Levy Equalization Under Gregoire's Proposed 2012 Supplemental Budget

The good news is that the Enumclaw School District has started off the 2011-12 academic year at a good place financially, said district officials Monday night at a meeting of the Enumclaw School Board.

The bad news is that after the special legislative session set to begin Monday, November 28, that will likely change.

With the release of Gov. Chris Gregoire's proposed supplemental budget for 2012 which features a variety of cuts in the area of education, administrators told the School Board that the district is vulnerable in a number of areas, including:

1) A reduction in levy equalization payments: Statewide, Gregoire is proposing $151.9 million in cuts. Enumclaw, for this academic year, receives $686,000 in levy equalization. Local Effort Assistance (LEA) is a state program set up to help support property-poor districts such as Enumclaw.

Part of Gregoire's proposal is to restructure levy equalization into a tiered system. (Click here to download a PDF from the state Office of Financial Management to learn more.) The rationale is that districts with the lowest property values and highest local levy tax rates would receive the smallest cut. Those districts with local levy rates closest to the statewide average rate would lose program eligibility as they are better able to offset the state reduction through local tax collections. 

Under this model, said Superintendent Mike Nelson, Enumclaw falls under Tier 4, which could see a 100 percent reduction in levy equalization.

2) A reduction in the number of days in a school year from 180 days to 176 days: Cutting four days is expected to save the state $99.2 million. 

3) Shifting bus depreciation payments: Delaying state payments to school districts for bus replacements by 10 months (from October to August). This is expected to save $49 million.

4) Assorted cuts to employee benefits and school programs. (See the WSSDA legislative update for more details.)

District director of business and operations Tim Madden reminded the board and administration alike that ahead of the legislative session, this is all speculative at this time and doesn't mean the cuts are imminent.

All the district can do is move forward. "We just continue to do the work," he said.

Board member Nancy Merrill said it's very important for everyone concerned about cuts to education to contact their local legislators and let them know what you think. The 31st District lawmakers who represent those in the Enumclaw School District are:

• Rep. Cathy Dahlquist
• Rep. Christopher Hurst
• Sen. Pam Roach

(Click the links above to locate contact information for each lawmaker.)

Read a summary of education highlights from Gregoire's budget. 

Promoting Manufacturing Education

Local business owner Ted DeVol of spoke to the board about supporting more robust manufacturing programs at the high school. He lamented that he is currently looking to hire but could not find anyone properly trained as programmers and machinists.

In fact, DeVol said he went to WorkSource, the state unemployment resource, looking for potential hires but "there are no programmers on employment."

It can be a lucrative field and one that should be increasing in demand as companies start to realize outsourced products don't meet consumers' demands for high quality. "Manufacturing is middle class," he said. "And no one is talking about it."

Board member Corey Cassell, an advocate for promoting science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) in schools as well as Career and Technical Education (CTE), said that area colleges including Renton Technical College and Green River Community College are receiving grants and beginning to implement such training programs that DeVol had advocated -- largely at with the support of area manufacturing giant Boeing.

In response to DeVol's concerns that a qualified work force no longer exists in the field, "the giant has finally woken up and realized we have a big, big problem," Cassell said.

For the school district, the hurdle is the expense of implementing such a program, as well as finding qualified instructors willing to leave their high-paying jobs in order to teach, Cassell said.

Nonetheless, he was eager to speak more with DeVol about the issue.

Not Waiting for Elections Results

Though the race for the No. 4 position on the School Board has yet to be decided between Tina McGann or Dan Peterson, both candidates along with current board members attended the annual conference of the Washington State School Directors' Association (WSSDA) in Bellevue this past weekend.

The conference was an opportunity for new board members to become familiar with serving on a school board, according to Board President Chris VanHoof and give all who attend an opportunity hear from their peers about what's happening in districts across the state.

McGann and Peterson said they accepted the invitation to attend so they can keep up with the board when the election is finally certified at the end of the month. At Monday night's meeting, Peterson said at this point, an automatic recount is inevitable.

The undecided race has been anxiety-inducing for both -- McGann said she's just taking it "day by day" and Peterson said it's hard not to check online for updated results each day but there aren't too many votes left to count at this point.

As of Monday, McGann led at 3,128 votes (49.9 percent) over Peterson's 3,116 votes (49.71 percent), but the lead has changed several times since the November 8 election results were first reported.

VanHoof said he appreciated that both candidates took part in the conference and took time out of their own schedules for it. When a final count is done and certified, either candidate will be well-prepared to begin serving their term.

In Other News:

The School Board approved the following donations:

• $2,632 from the Muckleshoot Tribe to purchase five iPads for the special education program  
• $5,946.71 from the Enumclaw Schools Foundation for grants to Black Diamond, Sunrise (2), Westwood, Kibler and Enumclaw High School (2)
• $45,000 from the Muckleshoot Tribe for a grant to the Native American Program
• $4,115.50 from Kibler PTA to Kibler for classroom enhancements