The actions of the Washington House and Senate — or lack thereof — will have an impact on how the Medical Lake School District prepares their budget next year.
During a report, business manager Chad Moss explained that the House and Senate are still “a ways away” on answering the Washington Supreme Court’s order to increase spending on education.
“They are close on total spending for school, but they are miles away on revenue,” Moss said. “We’ll get money, we just don’t know how much we are getting.”
Legislature is currently discussing how to fund teacher salaries, as well as trying to reduce the impact on local levies. Moss said Medical Lake is going to have to adopt a budget before the end of June, even if the House and Senate are still in session.
“We may have to create a phantom budget, then do a budget extension when the real one comes out,” Moss said.
During his report, Superintendent Tim Ames said he is looking at staffing proposals from building administrators. He will meet with principals to discuss priority needs for staff, then look at their essential needs.
“The problem with staff is we don’t know what we can do until the budget comes out,” Ames said. “The good news is that we are not doing a staff reduction. If we bring on more teachers, we might have to do late hires.”
In light of the recent teacher walkouts around the state, Ames said Medical Lake staff chose not to walk out. He also met with local legislators and asked them to give a COLA (cost-of-living adjustment) raise and put money toward teacher benefits.
“We have very supportive legislators and some upset ones and they’ll have to come together,” Ames said. “We’re optimistic and we hope they can take care of this.”
In action items, the board approved the first reading of policies on public access to district records and course design/selection and adoption.
Kim Headrick, director of teaching and learning, explained that the policy on course design reflects on updated materials. It provides teachers with instructional materials, as well as supplemental materials for struggling students. Ames added that the district will look at resources and technology outside of traditional textbooks.
“For example, with Washington State History, we’re going to be looking at primary sources and documents from the state’s inception, instead of a textbook that discusses those documents,” Ames said.
The board also approved the first and second readings of P6512 - Infection Control Program. Under the policy, staff must provide documentation of immunization or evidence of immunity against certain vaccine-preventable diseases. The following immunizations are recommended for school staff: measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis.
In other business, the board approved:
● The voluntary student insurance policy for the 2015-16 school year.
● A 5-cent increase to hot lunch next year.
Al Stover can be reached at [email protected].
Reader Comments(0)