New budget restores school levy equalization funds
Lou Marzeles
News Editor
Gov. Christine Gregoire has responded to a wave of contention among state educators and has proposed a revised budget that reinstates levy equalization and preserves many education programs threatened in the first draft of the new budget.
Levy equalization is critical to the very survival of many property-poor school districts, education leaders have maintained. Levy equalization is state funds provided to such districts to enable them access to funding on more equal footing with property-rich districts.
But state Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn says the steps, while useful, do not adequately address the state’s education needs.
“The governor should be commended on ‘Book 2’ of the 2010 supplemental budget,” Dorn writes in a statement posted on his office web site. “I’m encouraged to see that the Governor’s new budget proposal reinstates levy equalization, which is vital to the long-term survival of property-poor districts. She also wants to restore all-day kindergarten, gifted programs, and other important programs needed to sustain education for all students.”
Dorn’s supportive statements end there, however. He goes on to say, “The governor didn’t go far enough. In fact, two cuts from her first supplemental budget remain in Book 2. Together, those cuts will make class sizes larger, not smaller. A program that adds teachers to early grades is being cut by $134 million during the next school year. That program has been funded by the legislature for nearly 20 years.
Second is voter-approved Initiative 728, which provides for smaller class sizes, is cut by $97 million. Studies have shown, and teachers have confirmed, that the more students in a classroom, the more difficult it is to reach all of them.”
Dorn cites a recent report from the Quality Education Council to make his most demanding statement: “No more education cuts,” he writes. “We cannot continue delivering quality education to our students while cutting education spending. Our state constitution requires us to ‘make ample provision for the education of all children’ in Washington state. I call on state legislators to restore these damaging cuts. We cannot go back on our constitutional requirement. Cutting education funding would do exactly that.”
Dorn and the governor have traded strongly opposing viewpoints on education goals and strategies through the media in recent months.
GHS cleared over phony anthrax threat
Lou Marzeles
News Editor
Goldendale High School students were evacuated from the school Friday morning while police and school officials assessed the validity of a threat to release anthrax in the facility.
“At about 9:30 Friday morning, a teacher came across a calculator,” Mark Heid, Goldendale school superintendent, reported, “a kind that can display text messages on its screen. A message was on the machine that said, ‘At 10 a.m. today I will deploy anthrax at Goldendale High School.’ ”
Heid said the school was evacuated as a standard precautionary procedure. Students were sent to the primary school to get them out of the cold while Goldendale police were called in to conduct an inspection of the premises. No threat was found. By afternoon, regular classes were resumed.
As of Friday afternoon, police were still trying to determine from whom the threat was issued.
Wishram and Roosevelt schools receive energy grants
Lou Marzeles
News Editor
Roosevelt School District gets $30,000. Wishram gets $6,778.
These districts are among 59 throughout the state slated to receive state funding for upgrades in energy efficiency of school buildings. That’s one out of every five school districts in the state.
The districts will receive nearly $16.7 million for projects that include upgrades to heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, repair and upgrade of controls, and replacement of inefficient lighting. Districts were notified last week about their projects.
Students, teachers, and staff will receive better ventilation, more reliable heat, improved temperature controls, and improved lighting.
To qualify for the funds, districts were required to conduct audits of the school facilities to identify projects that could demonstrate guaranteed energy savings. The districts also had to show what local financial resources they had for the project.
A third source of money, about $6.6 million, will come in the form of utility incentives, which are provided by utility companies to homes, schools and business for projects and purchases that reduce energy consumption.
The combination of state grant funds, district funds and utility incentives will total about $43.3 million in construction projects in 23 counties around the state.
The projects will save an estimated $2.1 million in energy costs each year. In units of energy—primarily electricity and natural gas—the savings can be compared to the annual energy use in 2,700 average state homes.
This grant program is administered by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. The office received 81 grant applications.
—With reports from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction
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