Letter: School District Shouldn’t Ask Residents for More Money After Giving in to Teachers’ Demands

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I’m writing to express my disgust at the 24 percent raise given to the teachers when they held the children of this community hostage in 2018.

Now the school board is trying to increase my taxes for the school levy by 88 percent — that’s 88 percent! The new property assessment bumped my levy tax up by 22 percent, and now they want to put a 66 percent rate increase on top of that. 

“Overall, state general purpose funding has grown by $3,359,312 (12.12 percent) since 2017-18. Expenditures are growing faster than revenue. Expenditures have grown from $47,344,739 in 2017-18 to $54,102,862 in 2019-20 (projected) - an increase of $6,758,123 (14.27 percent).” 

Source: /www.centralia.k12.wa.us/Page/3920

Why? The state increased funding by over $3.3 million, but the school board gave money they didn’t have — over $6.7 million — to appease the bullies who insisted their huge raise was more important than classroom aides, class sizes and other things parents would want for children’s education.



Now I’m supposed to vote to increase my tax by 88 percent to keep these unsustainable raises from bankrupting the school district?

Perhaps this situation is why voters are allowed to vote on these things. I think I will legally and civilly (unlike the teachers) have my own “strike” and vote “no” on the levy in February.

 

Jeremiah Jackson

Centralia