LETTER: Vote YES for the MLSD levy

When you have untrustworthy administrators and have elected overseers unwilling to put in the effort to be well informed on district affairs, you have a perfect incubator for the fiscal disaster the MLSD has been left in by the previous administration and school board directors. NO ONE currently in administrative positions or on the school board had ANYTHING to do with the financial shortfall our district is facing.  

Difficult, even heartbreaking decisions have been the result. For a small Eastern Washington school district to find itself with MILLIONS of dollars less than its financial administrators had been reporting, has led to scrutiny from the highest levels in the state’s Office of Public Instruction and other government officials. MLSD is in a very precarious predicament. If we do not pass the upcoming levy, the worsening of the district’s ability to meet its state mandated requirements will very likely bring west side government appointees to Moses Lake and THEY will make the decisions for our schools, students, teachers, staff, extracurriculars, etc. 

Our current board members have put in thousands of combined hours since becoming board members. They are sacrificing family time, leisure time, chores, even sleep, trying to put out the dumpster fire inherited from the previous board. These are UNPAID positions! How many of you donate thousands of hours to your community? Our present superintendent has voluntarily taken a salary reduction and has been working closely with the entire administration staff and school board. Sacrificing her free time, hoping to succeed in rescuing this district from the calamity that an honest evaluation exposed.

Our community is fortunate to have this extended leadership team working diligently to restore a crumbled foundation, and their dedication deserves to be acknowledged. The least we can do is to give them the resources to better the chances that a more predictable and stable present will provide stability in the future. Frugality and hard choices will continue to be required with the passage of the levy. It will (not) only buy a known level of financial support over the short term, but it will provide the breathing space to make long-term planning seem less like life or death. 

We need to keep our district’s decisions within our own community. For our children, the teachers trying to prepare them for their futures, and the administration trying to make it all possible.

PLEASE people, vote YES for the levy! 

Jon Smith
Moses Lake 

Editor’s Note: Only one board member remains who was on the Moses Lake School District Board of Directors when the financial concerns the district is facing came to be. Paul Hill has been on the board for some time. It is notable that, since the financial concerns came to light, Hill has pushed for reform and transparency and has reviewed every financial decision in-depth in an effort to correct the situation.