Letter to the Editor: The Centralia School District Will Persevere 

Posted

While the recent failure of the Centralia School District levy is frustrating, as a district we are thankful for the support of so many individuals, entities and organizations. On behalf of the Centralia School Board and the entire Centralia School District, a special thank you to all of those that understand the importance of our students and our school district’s success to the future of our students, our district and our Centralia community and who helped with the levy campaign.

Thank you to the Citizens for Centralia Schools organization and the individuals that worked tirelessly in support of our students. The district sincerely appreciates the time and effort of all those involved. It made a positive difference for our students to know there is a strong core in our community that values and supports their learning and success.

We also want to thank each citizen that voted in support of the levy. We understand many people are experiencing financial stress, and we appreciate the importance you put on education through your support of the levy.

While the levy failure is frustrating and a set back in our efforts to serve our students’ needs, we are resilient and we will continue to make every effort to move forward as a district. We are making budget reductions of approximately $4.2 million for the 2023-2024 school year. This total reduction includes the loss of the levy funds, loss of Local Effort Assistance (LEA) funds and the predicted loss of enrollment. We believe everything we are currently funding, or were planning to fund, is important to student success, so these reductions are painful. We are already lean, but we are also financially healthy as a district, other than the loss of the levy funds, of course.

We will continue to be good stewards of our public funds and focus on our service to students as we face this challenge.

As a district, we are focused on continual improvement and becoming a high performing district. This focus is not changing.



Tremendous growth has been made in the last three years, but we know we have significant work still to do. We are committed to working in partnership with our community to continue to improve and grow. Together we will achieve success for our students, and build a strong future for not only our students, but also for our district and our community.

We are happy to answer questions or talk with anyone that has a concern or idea. Please reach out directly at lgrant@centralia.wednet.edu.

 

Lisa Grant

Superintendent

Centralia School District