Archive for November, 2011
Today is my last day at The Bellingham Herald. My husband and I will be embarking on a new adventure in the Seattle area.
Kie Relyea, a long-time Herald reporter, is transitioning to the education beat. She will be full-time on the beat by mid-December (after she helps her own replacement transition). She will also be the new voice of School Days.
Kie can be contacted at kie.relyea@bellinghamherald.com or 360-715-2234.
I came to The Herald as a college student seven years ago, working in several departments– sports, Take 5 and news. Five years ago I started covering Whatcom County education, a topic I’m extremely passionate about.
Thanks to everyone who has helped me with stories these last several years. It has definitely been an interesting ride.
-Kira Millage Cox
Voters in the Ferndale School District will be asked to approve a replacement four-year maintenance and operations levy in February.
If approved, the levy would bring in between $13 million and $15.5 million each year from 2013-2016. The levy, which helps fund day-to-day operations of the district, would replace the two-year maintenance and operations levy that expires at the end of 2012. The decision to run a four-year levy instead of a two-year levy so that the district doesn’t have to pay for another election in two years.
The Ferndale School Board unanimously approved the levy amount and length at a meeting Tuesday night, Nov. 22.
When voters approve a levy, they are approving the maximum amount of money a district can collect in property taxes from residents – the tax rate may fluctuate, but the bottom-line amount the district receives can’t be above the approved amounts.
If approved, the estimated overall school property tax rates range from $4.66 in 2013, to $4.59 per $1,000 in 2016. That means a person with a home assessed at $250,000 would pay $1,165 in school property taxes in 2013 and $1,147 in 2016.
The new levy tax rate is expected to be about 33 cents more per $1,000 than the projected tax rate for 2012. That means a person with a home assessed at $250,000 would pay about $82 more in school property taxes in 2013 than 2012. The projected tax rate is expected to be lower than it was for residents from 2000 to 2004, but higher than the rate since 2005.
About $1 per $1,000 of the projected tax rate is for outstanding district bonds.
The current levy, which voters approved in 2010, allows the district to collect $11.28 million in 2012. That equals nearly 25 percent of the district’s operating budget.
The levy amount approved by the board is higher this time around due to expectations that state funding cuts will continue. In Gov. Chris Gregoire’s recently released 2012 supplemental budget proposal, she calls for shortening the school year and reducing or eliminating levy equalization funding, which is money that helps property-poor districts keep property taxes from being too high for residents. For the Ferndale School District, cuts outlined by Gregoire would equal about $1.1 million, said Mark Deebach, executive director of business and support services.
Ballots will be mailed to voters in late January for the February 14 election. The other six school districts in Whatcom County will also be running replacement levies during the February election, although not all districts have set amounts or estimated tax rates.
For more information about the levy, visit ferndale.wednet.edu.
An elementary school will be closed, and sixth-graders in the Ferndale School District will be moving to middle schools, but not until the 2013-14 school year.
The Ferndale School Board unanimously made the decision Tuesday night, Nov. 22.
As part of the decision, all attendance boundaries will also be redrawn.
Exactly which elementary school will close will be decided in coming months. And exactly how the sixth-graders will be integrated into the two middle schools is yet to be determined.
The decision comes after months of discussing it with community members. The Facilities Advisory Committee, which was charged with reviewing all district schools and coming up with a plan to best use the current buildings, made the recommendation to the board in the spring.
One of the underlying reasons for the changes is to save money — an estimated $350,000 per year, according to Mark Deebach, executive director of business and support services. Another is the fact that many of the district’s facilities are out-dated and in need of repair. An independent assessment of the district showed that $90 million over the next 10 years is needed to get the buildings up to current learning standards.
The FAC recommended the district move forward with the changes this year, but board members and district officials thought it would be better to wait a year in order to have a smooth transition. Work to be done includes redrawing attendance areas, developing a new middle school curriculum that includes sixth-grade, reassigning teachers and doing transition activities for fifth-graders.
Elementary and middle school aged chess players are invited to an all-day tournament Saturday, Dec. 3 at Lynden Christian Middle School.
The Lynden Christian Chess Club is sponsoring the tournament, which is open to players of all abilities in grades kindergarten through 8. The tournament features five, 30-minute rounds and serves as a qualifier for the 2012 Washington State Elementary Chess Championship. Trophies will be awarded to the top-ranking students in each section.
The entry fee is $15 per person. Students need to check-in between 8:30 and 9 a.m. The first round will start at 9:30 a.m. and the awards ceremony is scheduled for close to 4 p.m.
For more information, or to register, visit northwestchess.info and click on the “LCS Christmas Chess Classic” link.
Note: This story was updated Tuesday, Nov. 22. The information about public school attendance was inaccurate. Gov. Gregoire’s budget calls for considering students to be withdrawn from school after 5 consecutive days of unexcused absences. Currently students are allowed 20. The post is corrected below.
Gov. Chris Gregoire has released her 2012 supplemental budget proposal, and the impacts to state education are along the lines with what education officials have been expecting.
The governor’s budget proposal reduces revenue to school districts and colleges, shortens the K-12 school year, creates a fund to help school districts avoid insolvency, and suspends the state work study program.
The proposal calls for cutting about $507.5 million from education funding. The 2011-13 biennial budget includes $15.3 billion in education funding. Overall, the proposal includes more than $2 billion in budget reductions for the state, and calls for leaving about $600 million in reserves.
Impacts to education include:
Department of Early Learning
- reduce seasonal child care administration, which eliminates state funding through nonprofits for child care subsidies for migrant workers. Saves about $2.1 million
- Eliminate state funding for Child Care Resource and Referral program. Most funding is from federal government, so only impacts 11 percent of program’s services. Saves about $1.3 million.
- Reduce administration by $950,000.
K-12 schools
- Shorten the K-12 school year by four days, leaving 176 days in the school calendar. School districts would still need to maintain 1,000 instructional hours each year. Employee salaries would also be reduced, since fewer days would be included in contracts; impact is about 2.2 percent, beginning with the 2012-13 school year.
- Reduce monthly allocations for K-12 health benefits by $23 per person. Saves $19.9 million.
- Delay June 2013 apportionment until July 2013. This is an accounting move that basically moves the financial burden to the next budget. Gregoire states in the budget proposal that the 2013 Legislature could reverse this plan if state revenue increases. School districts still receive all the money their due, it just falls into another budget year. This has the potential to impact payroll; a similar move was done this year. Saves about $340 million in the 2011-13 budget.
- Reduce levy equalization payments, which is money given to property-poor districts to help keep property tax rates from being unbearable. (i.e. districts with low property value need to have higher tax rates to raise the same amount of money as districts with high property values) Districts would be classified into four levels; districts with the lowest property values would have the least amount cut. Some districts will lose all their funding. If state revenue increases, Gregoire wants to remove this cut. Saves about $151.9 million.
- Shift bus depreciation payments from October to August. This is another accounting move that shifts the burden to future budgets. Saves about $49 million from current budget.
- Eliminate several state grants, including Readiness to Learn, principal and superintendent internships, career and technical-education start-up grants, and Promoting Actual Student Success. Reduces other grants, including Washington Reading Corps, College Readiness and IT Academy. Saves $8.8 million.
- Reduce national board certification bonuses by $1,000 per person, saving $8.6 million.
- Change the state attendance policy so that students are considered withdrawn after 20 5 consecutive days of absences. Saves $6.5 million.
- Reduce staffing for high schools with fewer than 300 students; schools would have a minimum of 8 teachers instead of 9. Saves $4.4 million.
- Reduce administration costs in the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction by $600,000.
- Reduce state support for School for the Blind and Center for Childhood Deafness and Hearing Loss by 5 percent. Saves $693,000.
- Create financial contingency fund for districts that might face insolvency due to the delay in apportionment. Costs $10 million.
- Provide grants to 12 high schools and 2 skill centers for aerospace assembler and manufacturing support programs, allowing students to enter the work field after graduation. Costs $450,000.
- Promote aerospace careers through Project Lead the Way and grants to 10 high schools. Costs $250,000.
Higher Education
- Reduce state support to colleges and universities by $106.1 million. For Western Washington University, the impact is about $7 million. (Gregoire’s proposal calls for cutting 17 percent of state support; with tuition increases already budgeted for the 2012-13 school year, the net impact is about 11 percent). The overall revenue for the university, including tuition and local funds, is $273 million for the 2011-12 school year. For the Whatcom Community College and Bellingham Technical College, the cut is about 13 percent; exact dollar amounts haven’t been released because it goes through the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges.
- Suspend the state work study program, which impacts 7,600 students statewide. Federally funded work study won’t be affected. Saves about $8.1 million (starting with fall 2012).
- Increase capacity for engineering programs at University of Washington and Washington State University. Costs $7.6 million.
With the proposed cuts, about 43 percent of the state’s general fund is spent on K-12 public schools. About 7.4 percent is spent on higher education.
Gregoire is also discussing a sales tax increase; if that passes, several items might be removed from the budget cut list, including shortening the school year and reducing levy equalization payments.
The state legislature starts the special session on Monday, Nov. 28.
Comments about the budget proposal from various education people are below the jump.
The Bellingham School District finalized the purchase of 17 acres in the King Mountain/Irongate area Friday, Nov. 18.
The site, which cost about $1,125,000, will be used for a school when development in the area warrants one.
The district has been looking for land in the north-central part of the district for years, said Ron Cowan, assistant superintendent of business and operations.
The parcel is L-shaped, fronting Bakerview Road between Cougar Road and Kramer Lane, across Bakerview from the Irongate Industrial Park. The wooded, mostly flat parcel bends behind Bellingham Covenant Church and homes north of the church.
Much of the growth in Bellingham has been on the north side of the city, and while there’s “limited development in the area now,” growth is expected in the area, Cowan said. At least one urban village project is planned for King Mountain at this point.
“It positions us well to have a nice school site when that development and growth occurs,” Cowan said. “We won’t have to play catch-up… we’re trying to be proactive and be well-positioned for when it’s necessary.”
It is common practice for school districts to own property for future growth; Ferndale and Lynden school districts each own property for future school sites with no immediate development plans.
The money for the property comes from the capital projects fund, which under state law, can only be used for construction and purchasing property. Specifically, the money is interest earnings from previous bond issues; when a school district sells bonds, the money is invested and interest is earned. That interest stays in the capital projects fund.
Voters approved a bond in 2006 that included money to purchase land in Sudden Valley for a future school. That money still remains and is not being used for the new property purchase, Cowan said. However, finding a school site in Sudden Valley isn’t likely to happen soon.
“The environmental constraints associated with constructing a large facility within the Lake Whatcom watershed at this point would appear to be prohibitive and might make it even impossible to build in the watershed,” Cowan said. “The district is holding funds in reserves, not spending it on anything else, for if and when the time comes it looks like we could build a school in Sudden Valley.”
There are no immediate plans to build another new school; the district opened Cordata Elementary this fall and Birchwood Elementary School is slated for renovations over the next couple of years. The future school would likely be an elementary or middle school; the site is too small for a high school.
The Bellingham School Board approved a purchase and sale agreement for the property in July and therefore did not need to approve the final sale.
State Superintendent Randy Dorn thinks shortening the school year in order to save money is a bad idea.
During a speech to school board representatives from around the state, Dorn laid-out his suggestions for how the state could reduce education spending. He specifically said shortening the school year, an idea that’s being floated around for the 2012-13 school year, is not the right answer because it’s a cut to basic education.
Dorn’s cost-savings recommendations mainly focus on delaying payments to school districts for various things: levy equalization funds (money for property-poor districts), apportionment , and school bus depreciation.
According to Dorn, delaying those payments would save the state $600 million.
Delaying those payments would mean districts eventually get the funds, possibly helping them avoid some cuts, but the financial burden would fall into the next budget year. The state Legislature approved a move like that for the current budget; the June apportionment for the 2010-11 school year was pushed to July, meaning the payments came out of the 2011-12 budget.
During the Legislative session, Dorn said he will focus on trying to prevent cuts to basic education, continuing the work on improving and removing ineffective teachers, and writing rules for what to do when a school district becomes financially insolvent (something that happened in 2007).
The state Legislature returns to Olympia on Monday, Nov. 28 to start a special session.
The following is excerpted from an OSPI press release about Dorn’s statements at the Washington State School Directors Association conference.
Legislative agenda
Dorn said he will spend much of the 2012 legislative session fighting to retain basic education funding. “I don’t believe cutting days from the school year is the answer,” he said, adding that doing so is a cut to basic education. Dorn said that a number of one-time savings are possible: delaying when schools receive their levy equalization money by two months, delaying when districts receive some of their apportionment money by two weeks and delaying depreciation payments for school buses by nine months. Adding those would save the state about $600 million dollars.
“This state is in a tough economic situation,” Dorn said. “But if we cut basic education, that affects our children and their futures. We can’t let that happen.”
Beyond that, Dorn’s legislative agenda will focus on two areas: improving or removing ineffective teachers and helping to write rules if a district becomes financially insolvent. He will propose bills in both areas.
Dorn praised the Teacher and Principal Evaluation Pilot program, which was tasked by the Legislature to create a new, uniform evaluation system for teachers and principals. “I think the piloting they’re doing now is the best in the nation,” he said. “Plus there’s a lot of support for their work, both from teachers and administrators.”
But Dorn said he was concerned about how to deal with ineffective teachers. The first step, he said, is to help improve those teachers. If that’s not possible, districts need more flexibility in dealing with them. “My proposal is this: teachers who receive the lowest rating in their evaluations two years in a row should revert back to probationary status. Districts can then work with those teachers on a plan of improvement, or remove them without the elongated system of appeals we have now.”
Dorn said he was also concerned about what to do when a district becomes financially insolvent. That occurred in 2007, when the Vader School District failed to pass levies and could not continue to function. But no rules exist on the process of dissolving a district. In tough economic times, Dorn said, the issue could come up again. “Make no mistake, though: I hope all 295 districts remain solvent,” he said. “But we do need some rules in case they aren’t.”
The Lynden School Board has set the amount for the replacement maintenance and operations levy: $5.35 million in 2013, growing to $6.65 million in 2016.
The levy, which helps fund day-to-day operations of the district, would replace the two-year maintenance and operations levy that expires at the end of 2012. Board members decided on a four-year levy this time so that the district doesn’t have to pay for another election in two years.
When voters approve a levy, they are approving the maximum amount of money a district can collect in property taxes from residents – the tax rate may fluctuate, but the bottom-line amount the district receives can’t be above the approved amounts.
If approved, the estimated property tax rates range from $2.98 per $1,000 of a home’s assessed value in 2013, to $3.01 per $1,000 in 2016. That means a person with a home assessed at $250,000 would pay $745 in school property taxes in 2013 and $752 in 2016.
The new levy tax rate is expected to be about 0.46 cents more per $1,000 than the projected tax rate for 2012. That means a person with a home assessed at $250,000 would pay about $115 more in school property taxes in 2013 than 2012.
Unlike other districts in the county, Lynden residents don’t have any bond payments in their property taxes; the last bond was paid-off in 2010. Because there is no bond payment, the overall projected rates for school taxes would be higher than what property owners have paid the past few years ($2.27 in 2008, $2.65 in 2009, $2.72 in 2010 and $2.48 this year), but lower than the years six years before 2008 ($4.82 was the peak in 2002, down to $3.39 in 2007).
The current levy, which voters approved in 2010, allows the district to collect $4.5 million in 2012. That equals about 18 percent of the district’s operating budget.
The levy amount approved by the board is higher this time around due to expectations that state funding cuts will continue, including a possible loss in levy equalization funding, which is money that helps property-poor districts keep property taxes from being too high for residents. The Lynden School District received about $443,000 in levy equalization funding in 2011, according to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Ballots will be mailed to voters in late January for the February 14 election. The other six school districts in Whatcom County will also be running replacement levies during the February election, although not all districts have set amounts or estimated tax rates.
For more information about the levy, click here.
Families looking for a fun way to celebrate the season are invited to Western Washington Unviersity on Saturday, Nov. 19 for a Fall Harvest Festival.
The event, which is coordinated by members of the WWU National Residence Hall Honorary organization, will feature a cake walk, potato-sack races, bean bag toss, and more child-appropriate activities. There will also be refreshments.
The free event is from 6 to 8:30 p.m. in Viking Union room 462.
Teens and parents wanting to learn more about financial aid options for college are invited to upcoming information meetings.
People can choose from two sessions: 7 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 1 at Bellingham High School, 2020 Cornwall Ave., or 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 4, at Trinity Lutheran Church Fellowship Hall, 119 Texas St.
Western Washington University financial aid officers will provide families with information about scholarships and the Free Application for Financial Student Aid. Interpreters will be available for people who speak Spanish, Russian, Vietnamese and Punjabi.
For more information about financial aid and the meetings, students should visit their high school career center.
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