Dear Representatives and Senators of Legislative Districts 1 and 32:

We know there are many competing priorities you are being asked to address this coming legislative session, particularly around our state economy, housing, and public safety. Education is not separate from these, but rather foundational to any of their success. Washington state is falling short of funding real-world needs in public education and failing to fulfill its paramount duty to make ample provision for the education of all Washington state children. We are aware of a projected $1.1 billion in additional state revenue for 2024. Allocating at least 50% of these funds, along with the net gain expected from the capital gains tax for early learning and school construction, would have a significant impact on addressing this crisis.

Shoreline School District, along with districts across this state, is facing significant budget cuts due to the intersection of decreased state funding with increasing real-world costs through at least 2025. As your concerned Shoreline and Lake Forest Park constituents we are asking you to prioritize stabilizing K-12 funding in 2024 and beyond in order to address the funding shortfalls draining our levy funds. As voters, we have demonstrated continued support of public education by passing levies. Levy funding is designed to go towards enrichment of basic education, but year after year Shoreline and districts across the state are forced to either use levy funds to pay for basic education or cut vital and mandated services like transportation, insurance, and other staffing expenses. The current prototypical school model does not reflect the real-world needs in our schools. Our long term priority is to see that basic education, taking into account real-world needs and costs, is fully funded and a model is in place that allows us to use our levy monies the way our vote was intended: for enrichment, not basic needs. As your constituents, we urge you to address the following shortfalls this session highlighted by the Shoreline School District and School Board which also align with Washington State PTA’s resolutions and legislative principles:

Realize Inclusive Special Education as Basic Education

Fully and amply fund the true cost of special education services. Despite the progress made last session, special education costs continue to be our largest shortfall year after year. This year Shoreline is facing an $8M gap in special education funding, approximately 32% of levy funds.

Amply Fund Staffing Positions and Compensation

Staffing compensation accounts for more than 80% of our district’s budget and the unfunded portions of that is the primary obstruction to maintaining a balance between our revenue and expenditures. There is a significant misalignment around staffing and student ratios after Grade 3. This year we especially urge for progress to be made on paraeducator funding and counselor:student ratios.

Fund the unfunded portions of IPD/COLA and SEBB for Title 1 staff which force our district to choose between funding vital positions (principals, asst. principals, deans, counselors, librarians, nurses, psychologists, paraeducators, family advocates, custodians, security, front office and nutrition services) and further depleting our levy funds. Approximately $2M or 8% of levy funds go towards SEBB and paying for benefits that may or may not be used.

Update the state funding model for substitutes (minimum 10 days/$190 per day). Allocated substitution days have not been addressed since 2011. It was requested by OSPI last year but not addressed in the 2023-2025 state budget. Currently the state funds 4 days but mandates 10 and many union contracts negotiate for more. The discrepancy in substitution days is costing Shoreline $1M, approximately 4% of its levy funds. For Shoreline, nearly 79% of substitution costs are being paid with levy funds. These findings are consistent with other districts across the state. According to WSSDA, the total unfunded portion amounted to $286.1M in the 2021-2022 school year.

Respond to Regional Costs

Increase MSOC allocations to adjust for increasing insurance and utility costs. Insurance and utilities have significantly increased since 2021 and state apportionment has not kept pace with these increases. Again, Shoreline and other districts are forced to choose between violating state law by not having insurance or using levy funds for non-enrichment purposes. This year that discrepancy is costing Shoreline $2M, 8% of levy funding.

Support the Whole Child

Fully fund the true cost of student transportation. Although transportation was considered last session with SB 5174, most of the funding was stripped from the bill. We ask this topic to be revisited in the 2024 session and that funding be provided to support the actual costs of fuel, fleet, and staffing. This school year there is a discrepancy of approximately $800k in transportation funding.

Sincerely,
Corinna Sullivan, Shoreline PTA Council President, Malorie Larson Shoreline PTA Council Advocacy Chair, the Shoreline PTA Council Board of Directors and your 1st and 32nd legislative district constituents

Thank you for representing us in Olympia and keeping our schools and our children front of mind in the 2024 legislative session and beyond. Please continue reading for impact statements from constituents below:

1). As a Hi-Impact Paraeducator, I worked with small groups of elementary students who were a grade level or more behind in math. Hi-Impact para positions were eliminated in the budget cuts, and aside from the personal impact of losing my job, I am concerned for all of the students who need one-on-one and small group support to build skills and confidence in specific subject areas. My students loved coming to "math club" and I observed how their skill sets grew. I fear these students will be lost in the shuffle and promoted to higher grade levels without the skills they need.
- Amy Reed, Shorewood High School

2). In my 4th/5th grade classroom I have 29 students. There is no clear curriculum for teaching a split grade level class, so I am purchasing many curriculum-related items and creating content to merge the instruction for two grade levels. Creating all aspects of curricula is hugely time consuming. The large class size makes it difficult to transition between activities smoothly and causes a loss of instruction time. Having so many students and resulting noise level makes it difficult for students to focus, and the lack of physical space makes it difficult for students to focus when they are in such close proximity to one another. The volume of assessments, paperwork, and parent communication is impactful with so many students (and two grade levels!). Lastly, really knowing my students (academic, social-emotional, background) is the most important aspect of my job -- large class size makes it challenging to have a clear understanding of each and every child.
- Erin Kirkpatrick Suzuki, Highland Terrace Elementary

3). Budget cuts are impacting my schooling and life at school in almost every aspect. I now have to walk almost 10 minutes to my bus stop, because they condensed stops to reduce money. Some of the counseling and nursing staff have been cut or reduced, and especially doing sports it creates a lot bigger risk for safety. Classes have gotten bigger and as a person with ADHD and Dyslexia, I am not getting the support I need to learn because individual attention with such big class sizes is almost impossible. We need more funding.
-Addison Aungst, Sophomore at Shorecrest High School

4). As a school with a self-contained program, we are committed to including our students with special needs in general education classrooms. Due to the large class sizes in intermediate (33-35 students) it is difficult to add students into the classroom. For students with wheelchairs, there is often not enough space to move about the classroom. Due to budget cuts HT has lost our high impact funding. In the past this budget has allowed for us to hire a paraprofessional to help work with students 1st-5th grade who are not at grade level in math foundational skills. Our past program utilized district curriculum to help fill in gaps in their understanding. This program allowed 65% of students served to make gains in 3 or more math common core standards. We also saw growth in the student's scores in SBA from 2021-22 to 2022-23. - Kelsey Graves, Dean, Highland Terrace Elementary
5). HUGE class sizes make it much harder to provide one-on-one assistance and build relationships with my struggling math students.
- Patty Gerlicher, Shorecrest High School

6). I have 32 students in my 4th grade class. This large size makes transitions much more difficult. It takes us longer and is louder as we switch from one activity or lesson to another. Getting out materials, waiting one-by-one to retrieve Chromebooks from the charging cart, or moving through the hallway requires more time and reminders of behavior expectations. Learning time is lost simply because there are so many students.
- Emma Williams, Highland Terrace Elementary

7). Reduced hours for our family advocate, limits the support for our most marginalized populations. The cut of academic coaches removes a level of re-engagement support we had available for struggling students before they fail. Huge class sizes are impacting teacher morale, student behavior and achievement. Student discipline issues require admin and counseling teams to direct their energy there vs. focus on supporting/improving school culture.
- Shorecrest High School staff member

8). Since the Library Tech position was eliminated, I've reduced the number of books each student may check out. This decision was made to reduce the number of books. However, this means that I am now circulating approx. 500 less books a week compared to last year. Without the Library Tech, nearly 10 minutes of each class session is dedicated to helping checkout. With 17 classrooms, that's a loss of 170 minutes of librarian instruction a week. I no longer have the time to gather/display materials for thematic lessons or showcase cultural observances. This significantly impacts students' exposure books focusing on underrepresented groups. Library Tech was the building's technology troubleshooter. Staff is now left to figure out all tech issues (projector not working, computer issues, student login issues, etc.) during valuable teaching time. Library Tech was responsible for managing all curriculum materials in the building. Now, various staff members are taking on gathering teachers' curriculum.
- Joy Burke, Librarian, Highland Terrace Elementary

9). As a teacher, my class sizes and the overall number of students I have this year is overwhelming. At the same time, I have more students with high needs and new students are still being added. As a teacher who supports MLL students, I have a number of students who could be benefiting from academic support but we lost our academic coach with the budget cuts. As a parent of an 8th grader at the middle school, I am concerned about school safety with the loss of their security position. Already, there have been numerous incidents on their bus and the cancellation of school.
- Alicia Arnold, Shorecrest High School teacher & Shorecrest & Kellogg parent

10). My 5th grade classroom has 33 students this year. The impact of having this amount of 5th grade students is a longer list than I can probably make, but the larger impacts are lack of physical space, not enough time for grading and meaningful feedback, and inability to do small group work. I feel confounded by this faulty concept that older students should mean more students…while it’s true that my students don’t have as many behavioral needs as primary students, their academic needs necessarily double or triple. It’s an exchange, not a deficit that can be filled by more people. They’re learning involved and complicated skills. They need just as much guidance developmentally as someone learning to read, because the work is much harder as they grow. The idea of giving 4th and 5th grade teachers such an enormous amount of students, whilst also necessitating that the grist and preparation for middle school also meet their needs is essentially saying, as a district, that work shouldn’t get more meaningful or harder. That we are actively ignoring what it takes to decently prepare our 5th graders for the transition to middle school and giving all of them their best chance for success. Bottom line, the students grow developmentally, but the work also gets much harder. They need more help, not less, if education is the actual goal.- Brittany Wright, Highland Terrace Elementary
11). Large class sizes have always made the job of teaching more challenging. More kids, less of me, more behavior management, less actual educational touch points. Less support in and outside of the class from behavior techs, academic coaches and other supports for students with higher needs impacts students and classroom teachers as it eliminates the support these students need for either one on one or small group support. Security - our large building requires an all hands on deck approach. Students know when a sub is present or a position hasn't been filled. It decreases the safety of each individual in the building.
- Cami Pratt, Shorecrest High School teacher

12). The loss of our middle school security monitor has had a huge impact on our student and staff's safety and the day-to-day logistics of running our school. Here is a short, non-exhaustive list of things our security monitor handled that are now the responsibility of myself, office staff, counselors, and administrators (or, unfortunately, are no longer being done): checking security cameras after incidents or reports of incidents in the building, conducting searches of student belongings, assigning lockers and monitoring use of lockers, investigating student reports, conducting searches of the building for missing students, responding to any police contact, escorting unauthorized people off of school property, organizing security and safety at after-school events, leading restorative conversations with students, editing and revising the student handbook, monitoring students before school and at lunches, assisting administrators in investigations. As the Dean of Students, I have taken on a majority of the tasks once covered by our school safety monitor. As the year continues I fear that my role will be completely transformed into a Security Specialist. The Dean of Students should be focusing on the development and implementation of a robust Multi-tiered Systems of Support program, which creates a safe and positive learning environment for ALL of our students. Unfortunately, that has taken a back seat to maintaining basic student safety. Every day I (and our administrators) respond to students shoving, slap-boxing, refusing to follow staff safety instructions, skipping class, vaping, and the most major behavior needs of students. Additionally, I spend 90 minutes of my day supervising student lunches. This means that we have much less time to respond to things like hate speech, privacy violations, property damage, theft, bullying (including cyber-bullying), technology violations, classroom disruptions, academic dishonesty, and many other things that negatively affect student learning and safety. Thankfully, the incident on December 1 was found to be unsubstantiated and we were able to return to school on the following Monday without issue. However, the experience definitely had a negative impact on the emotional and psychological well-being of our Kellogg community. I worry every day that we will be unable to manage the daily occurrence of behaviors, and there will be a major safety or security issue that will in fact put our students and staff at risk of harm.
- Rosie Moore, Kellogg Middle School