OLYMPIA…Sen. Bob Morton, R-Orient, Rep. Bob Sump, R-Republic, and Rep. Joel Kretz, R-Wauconda, this week met with the Panorama School Administrators Association to hear their legislative priorities for the upcoming session.

“I appreciate the excellent attendance and presentation on their part. The meeting really created a worthwhile dialogue,” said Morton. “We agreed to meet earlier next year to give more time for adequate review and research of their ideas prior to session.”

“This was one of the most productive meetings we’ve had with our school administrators in a long time,” said Sump. “As a result of conversations I will introduce legislation this session to address two of the concerns that were raised.”

Sump agreed to take the lead, saying he is drafting a bill which would change the way state funding is allocated to pay schools for their transportation costs. It would change the current method of calculating payment to school districts by paying them for the surface miles buses travel, not radius miles.

“Schools aren’t being fairly compensated for the amount of miles their buses are traveling,” said Sump. “Our current method isn’t fair at all and it really hurts rural school districts like ours. It is especially difficult now with gas prices as high as they are.

“Another bill I’m working on for next session would allow school districts to opt out of the state’s truancy law known as the “Becca” law, if it’s proven to be ineffective for an individual district,” Sump said.

“From what I’ve heard schools are doing their part to implement the language in the Becca bill, but the courts aren’t necessarily following through on their end. It’s costly for the schools and they’d be able to use the Becca funding better on the preventative side instead of reacting after the fact,” added Sump.

Kretz commented that he was very pleased with the large attendance and encouraged to see that there were concrete solutions to come out of the meeting.

“I appreciated the time our school administrators took to meet with us and I personally learned a lot,” said Kretz. “They are the ones with the education expertise, so we look to them to work with us to find education solutions.

“A lot of good ideas came out of the meeting, and now we’ve got some positive and practical direction to move forward. I’m hopeful will continue to work collaboratively on important education issues,” said Kretz.

More than 20 area school administrators and several school superintendents in training attended the meeting in Colville.

The PSAA presented questions and dialogue during the meeting in preparation for the upcoming legislative session. The association focused on 10 topics, with those topics taking priority in the free exchange including:
· Simple majority votes on school levies;
· The need to change the K-12 school funding structure;
· Special education;
· Busing and transportation costs and the need for supplemental money due to increased fuel costs for the upcoming school year; and
· Levy equalization.

The PSAA is comprised of school administrators from Pend Oreille, Stevens and Ferry counties.

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For more information contact Tami Davis (360) 786-7519
davis.tami@leg.wa.gov
or Lisa Fenton (360) 786-7728
fenton.lisa@leg.wa.gov