 Welcome back to the 2018-2019 school year in the Napavine School District. We are settling in now for a little over a month and are excited to be back working with your students. Our teachers took time before school started to get trained in cooperative learning strategies as well as other engagement strategies. As I visited the classrooms at the beginning of the year, I noticed a dramatic increase in students engaged in lessons, students talking with each other about the learning in the classroom, students getting up and active in the classroom while they are learning, and frequent checks for understanding to make sure students are keeping up with the learning. Also, I have noticed the students excitement and fun they are having as they are fully engaged in the class and the lesson. You would be amazed at what’s going on in each classroom. It’s great to be a Tiger!
This summer you may have seen quite a bit of publicity revolving around the new “McCleary” Decision (or House Bill 6362). Basically, the state has increased the amount of money it gives toward education while at the same time limiting the amount of money the local community (through levies) can contribute. There are great things with this and there are also some challenging items that create differences for each district. See below . . . - State no longer funds teachers on a specific salary guide and they give an average dollar amount ($65,216) per teacher. This penalizes districts with more experienced and educated teachers.
- State gives more money to districts who live in areas with high costs of living. Some districts receive up to 24% more funding, Napavine receives zero extra. This is called regionalization.
- State gives 4% more money to districts who have a large amount of experienced teachers and master's degrees. Although high, Napavine did not qualify.
- State funding increased in many categorical areas. There were increases to special education, vocational education, highly capable (gifted), and English Language Learner education. This is amazing for our students, but it does reduce flexibility in what we can spend the money on.
- State reduced the maximum levy amount for tax-payers to $1.50 per $1000 of assessed value (starting in 2019). State will allow districts to receive up to a max of $2,500/student in levy funds. For districts that cannot reach $1500/student with a $1.50/$1000 levy, the state will kick in money (LEA, Levy Equalization Allocation) to reach $1,500/student. Napavine would only bring in approximately $718/student with $1.50/$1,000 levy but state would kick in to get us up to $1,500/student if we pass a levy at $1.50/$1000. Napavine still loses approximately $400,000 each year compared to existing levy @ $2.40/$1,000.
- State still utilizes the same funding model as before, but increased the amount of money for each category. Current funding model for Napavine allocates 40 teachers (we have 50 to lower class sizes), 13 classified (we have 22), 13 minutes a day of nurse time (we employ a full-time nurse), 3.5 administrators (we have 3), etc. The difference is paid for through voter approved levy funds
As you can see, each district is in their own unique situation and there are winners and losers in this new funding model. The Napavine School District and each of our unions (classified and certified) worked very hard to come up with a solution that meets the needs of everyone involved, especially the students. The legislation has done a great deal of work toward fully funding education and we are very thankful. We hope the Legislation, going forward, will tweak the existing funding model to create a more equitable solution that benefits all students.
Superintendent Entry Plan 2017-2018 updated 10/10/17
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