Legislative decisions impact our everyday lives, from the classroom to the boardroom. By working together, the school districts across Capital Region ESD 113 have a stronger voice to influence those decisions. As the old saying goes, "If you're not at the table, you're on the menu."

Each year, we work with our districts to determine legislative priorities and develop messaging. We design materials to support the priorities and make them available for districts to use and share to tell their own story at a local level.

2019 Priorities

Equitable & Flexible Funding

• Allow districts to support community priorities through expanded local levies. Tie these levies to a percent of total district expenditures, rather than unpredictable factors like student enrollment or property values.
• Increase state support for Local Effort Assistance (LEA) to expand financial support of high-need districts.
• Revise the regionalization model. Address unintended consequences to districts adjoining districts receiving regionalization, and include the unique needs of rural school districts when allocating these additional funds.

Salary Allocation

• Fund salaries based on staff experience. The current average salary allocation model creates inequities and inserts compensation costs into the staff selection process.

Health Care

• Delay implementation of the new SEBB program until the Legislature fully funds the cost.

Special Education

• Increase the special education multiplier.
• Include new multipliers for students who need significant support.
• Increase available funds and streamline the Safety Net process.
• Increase technical assistance for districts that need to access Safety Net funding.

Other Requests

School Safety

• Increase funding for school nurses.
• Fund mental and behavioral health services, guidance counselors, and crisis response coordination.
• Invest in a regional safety center stationed at our educational service district.

School Facilities

• Advance a constitutional amendment allowing voters to approve school bond measures with a simple majority.
• Increase Construction Cost Allowance and Student Space Allocations to align with true construction costs and square-footage needs.
• Revise rules to require serving districts to notify non-high districts of new capital projects.

This 2019 Legislative Platform was approved by the superintendents of the 44 public school districts and one tribal compact school served by Capital Region ESD 113.

Phillips Burgess Government Relations, LLC
360-742-3500
724 Columbia St NW, Suite 320
Olympia, WA 98501