Can you say “grab-for-cash”? The two proposed school levies are just that. The current four-year Maintenance and Operations (M&O) levy (2006 – 2009) will have collected a bit more than $7.8 million when it expires. That is $1.46 million or 23 percent more dollars than the four-year levy that it replaced.

However, the currently proposed “levy 1” (the so-called “replacement” levy) to replace the expiring four-year levy would collect $13.3 million over four years. That is $5.8 million or 70 percent more dollars than the levy that it would replace.

The currently proposed “levy 2” would collect an additional $4.35 million. That’s 125 percent more dollars!

Budgeting on a shoestring? Student enrollment peaked at about 6,000 full time equivalent (FTE) students in 1998. From as recently as 2004-2005, enrollment has reduced about 10 percent. During that same period, the district M&O budget has gone up over 10 percent, from about $42.5 million to $47.1 million.

This year, the school district’s initially approved M&O budget is for 5,100 FTE students at just about $9,246 per student. With actual FTE numbers tracking about 5,200, the district will see even more M&O dollars than budgeted. (Note: If all five district budgets are added together, M&O, Capital Projects, Debt Service, Associated Student Body, and Transportation, they sum to about $58.5 million this year, or well over $11,000 per FTE student).

Trimming the fat? The district’s two proposed M&O levies would unnecessarily add two more additional Time, Responsibility and Incentive (TRI) day local supplemental pay to teachers’ salaries. From within the local M&O budget, Oak Harbor already pays each of its teachers local supplemental pay between $3,200 and $6,100. We currently pay for 17 supplemental/TRI days. Each TRI days costs well over $100,000 per day. Imagine how many more actual teachers or aides we could afford if TRI dollars were spent efficiently. Paying for more TRI days from local M&O property tax levies is an expensive precedent we should not set.

What’s average? The Seattle PI recently pegged “average” annual teacher pay statewide at $55K, a number that also appears smack near the middle of the local teacher pay scale. With a local union-negotiated 182-day contract, and a 7.5 hour union-negotiated work day, that’s an average pay of about $40 an hour. Locally, teacher pay ranges from about $28 to $52 per hour.

What’s a true “replacement” levy? Instead of the proposed levies, a true (about) 51-cent “renewal” levy would give the school district 4 to 5 percent more local M&O dollars for each of the next four years: more than adequate to keep current programs afloat. The currently proposed increased levies would make local education more expensive, and that’s about all they would do. There’s already plenty of K-12 money sloshing around.

Bill Burnett

Oak Harbor