Some good news for schools

ROYAL CITY - With the governor and legislators looking for ways to cut education spending to balance the state budget, Royal Schools Superintendent Rose Search noted last week that her district got a bit of good financial news recently.

The property valuations in the district for the 2012 taxing year have gone up slightly, she said. That will increase the amount of revenue generated by the maintenance and operation levy in 2013 by about $35,000 with the taxing rate in place for 2012.

"The board has already decided that we are going to ask the voters for the same rate we'll have in 2012," Search said.

Before the rise in valuation, the district calculated that a rate of $2.30 would generate $1,070,000 in 2012. Search's staff now calculates that levy rate will generate $1,105,000.

If the voters pass the levy, set for a Feb. 14 election, that action would generate an additional $1.3 million in levy equalization funds. That would give the district just over $2.4 million to support programs not funded by state basic education.

That's if the legislature leaves the levy equalization program (LEP) as it is. Search said the latest word out of Olympia is that the LEP is still on the table but that it's no longer the main thrust of the conversation.

Now legislators are talking about cutting full-day kindergarten to half-day, Search said. They are also talking about cutting the school year from 180 to 176 days. That would work out to a 2.2 percent reduction in teacher salaries.

Search does not want to lose full-day kindergarten. That would set back the academic progress the district has been making recently.

Search noted the district has the largest kindergarten class ever this year. There are 146 students requiring seven classrooms.

According to Search, the legislature is also considering maintaining the current funding but delaying disbursement so that some of the 2012 funding would come from 2013 revenues. Search believes that idea only kicks the funding problem down the road.

One more idea floated in Olympia recently, Search said, is a hike of one-half a percent in the state sales tax. She would willingly pay it, she said, but she wonders how other taxpayers would react.

The best hope for the district, Search said, is for district voters to approve the levy. That is something they control, and it assures most programs will remain no matter what the state does.

Marching band and pep band are covered by levy funds. And the costs of band and choir concerts are covered by levy money.

Most of transportation it is covered by levy funds. Supplies and equipment, including technology for the classrooms, are purchased with levy funds.

Search noted that salaries for 4.6 teachers, which help keep classroom sizes at desirable levels, are supported by the levy. She said three of the professional development days paid to staff are covered by the levy.

Other programs that are supported, at least in part, by the levy are curriculum, athletics, grounds and maintenance and field trips.