2025 Legislative Agenda

CRITICAL DISTRICT ISSUES

 K-12 Funding Rebase: MSOC, SPED and Transportation

The prototypical school model does not cover the full cost of providing a safe and robust learning environment for students. Every school district subsidizes state funding with enrichment (local) levy funding to cover state funding shortfalls in fixed building operating costs and address ever-changing local student population needs. The state funding shortfall must be addressed in at least 3 key areas:

• Materials, Supplies and Operating Costs
  • Proposed Action: Re-base the funding factor to match current statewide average costs as projected by school districts in the 2025-26 school year – approximately $500 per student.
• Special Education
  • Proposed Action: Increase the special education funding multiplier to cover the additional costs of providing for the increased caseload costs caused by recent legislative incentives and directives to modernize and provide more intensive provision of care.
• Transportation
  • Proposed Action: Revise and update the current transportation funding formula to account for actual student transportation costs, especially for McKinney-Vento and special needs student transportation costs.

Strategic Plan Alignment: Safety, Academic Excellence, Partnership, Early Learning, Operations

Maritime Skills Center

The current need to prepare the next generation of Maritime employees has never been higher. Maritime transport is the backbone of global trade and the global economy. The jobs and livelihoods of billions of people in the world depend on ships and shipping, much of it through the Northwest Seaport Alliance – a marine cargo partnership of the Port of Seattle and Port of Tacoma, making it the fourth-largest gateway for containerized cargo in the United States. The need to prepare these employees and sustain Washington’s competitive edge requires an integrated approach of high school and college-level curriculum that results in student attainment of relevant industry recognized credentials, certifications and job experience leading to in-demand family-wage careers.

Proposed Action: Tacoma Public Schools requested $12 million in capital budget assistance for the project. The legislature provided $8 million in capital funding during the 2023 legislative session. The district requests the remaining $4 million of the overall request to be allocated in the supplemental capital budget. This state support supplements funding provided by the partnership between the district and the Port of Tacoma to build a new facility for a competency-based Maritime Skills Center to support all South Sound area students.

Strategic Plan Alignment: Academic Excellence

Learning Services Support for the Whole Child

Many students—especially those from underserved communities—benefit from free, enhanced extended learning opportunities before and after the school day. The legislature should actively remove regulatory barriers to school district and community partnerships that provide continuity of care throughout the workday.

Proposed Action: Establish a streamlined system allowing for school sites to be used for before and after school care. Eliminate overlapping agency jurisdiction for facility safety and health permitting by providing explicit school district safety and health permit supremacy over all school-based student care throughout the day.

Proposed Action: Provide priority grantmaking opportunities for community partner agencies to provide student supports and enhanced learning opportunities for youth from 3 to 6 p.m. and other non-school hours. The program funding must allow for professional development of new and existing staff talent as well as local infrastructure support to grow throughout the Tacoma/Pierce County area.

Strategic Plan Alignment: Academic Excellence, Partnership, Early Learning

ISSUES OF HIGH CONCERN

Prototypical School Staffing Formula Revisions

The prototypical school funding model does not adequately fund school building staffing. It takes more janitors, security personnel, family liaisons/social workers, mental health and special needs student staff to provide building-level services than the state formula provides to districts.

Proposed Action: Increase the funding for school support staff such as, McKinney Vento (homeless) liaisons/social workers, para-educators, psychologists (mental health), technology staff, custodians, security personnel, transportation services and parent involvement coordinators.

Proposed Action: Establish minimum operational maintenance (custodial, grounds, facilities) standards and fund staffing accordingly. The student transportation funding formula does not provide full cost recovery for student transportation services. Districts must use enrichment (local) levy funding to pay the additional costs to meet their duty to transport students to and from school.

Strategic Plan Alignment: Academic Excellence, Operations

Regionalization Funding Reform

The legislature created a regionalization funding formula providing additional revenues for school districts in urban areas where costs of living are above the statewide average. The current formula is established around school district boundaries and leads to inequitable funding levels among school districts in the same metropolitan areas. For example, there are disparate regionalization funding levels offered to districts in the greater Pierce County area. This leads to district funding disparities that ultimately creates staffing and compensation inequities in our broader community.

Proposed Solution: Establish a labor-market regionalization funding mechanism statewide and eliminate the funding disparities among the districts in similar metropolitan areas.

Strategic Plan Alignment: Academic Excellence, Operations

Board Member Compensation

The state restricts school board compensation to a per diem rate that does not fully acknowledge the demands of serving as a school board member. School board members regularly work dozens of hours per week to oversee and provide policy guidance to school districts. This work should be compensated through an updated school board compensation policy.

Proposed Solution: The legislature should allow school districts to establish board member compensation rates that reflect the demands of serving in board role. The statutory parameters for funding should be flexible enough to address services rendered to districts of all sizes and should therefore provide guidance for districts to use when setting compensation rates.

Strategic Plan Alignment: Academic Excellence

School Employee Benefits Board

The legislature created the school employee benefits board (SEBB) to bring all school district employees into one statewide pool for health insurance and other employer benefits beginning with the 2019-20 school year. The state does not fully fund the incremental costs of the benefits for full- or part-time locally-funded employees, which means school districts must allocate enrichment (local) levy funding to cover the mandated costs.

Proposed Solution: Increase state funding for school employee benefits to fully cover the incremental additional costs of this state-mandated employee benefit plan for all school district employees, including, in Tacoma Public Schools, nearly 400 employees beyond the prototypical school model that districts fund through enrichment (local) levies.

Strategic Plan Alignment: Academic Excellence, Operations

Community Partners Support

• Tacoma Metropolitan Parks
  Tacoma Metropolitan Parks is going to undertake an effort to expand and simplify the childcare programming requirements imposed by the Department of Children, Youth, and Families. The current regulations are so cumbersome that our efforts to partner with Metropolitan Parks on after-school programming for students has been slow and difficult to fully stand up and operate effectively.
  • Proposed Action: Work with Metropolitan Parks on legislative and administrative code changes that will simplify the process of establishing before and after school programs operated by third parties at our school facilities.
     
• Port of Tacoma
  The Port of Tacoma will be seeking state capital budget funding for environmental cleanup throughout the port. This funding is critical for ongoing efforts to increase commerce, provide for living wage jobs and enhance training and learning opportunities through the Maritime|253 Skills Center.
  • Proposed Action: Support the efforts of the Port of Tacoma to secure funding for remedial action grants from the state capital budget.
     
• Special Olympics Washington
  Special Olympics Washington partners with Tacoma Public Schools and Metro Parks Tacoma to remove barriers for students and families to experience Special Olympics. Funding is needed to expand Unified programming, creating inclusive sports and leadership opportunities for youth with and without intellectual disabilities in the City of Tacoma.
  • Proposed Action: We respectfully request legislative support and funding to help sustain and expand these vital programs, ensuring every student has access to inclusive activities that foster lifelong skills, community connection and joy.

Strategic Plan Alignment: Safety, Partnership

Simple Majority for Construction Bonds

School construction bond votes currently require a 60% supermajority to pass. This constitutional provision puts districts in jeopardy of being able to adequately provide updated and safe instructional space for students.

Proposed Action: Approve a constitutional amendment to be sent to the people allowing for a simple majority vote for school construction bonds.

Strategic Plan Alignment: Safety, Academic Excellence

School Construction Formula Modifications

The current school construction cost allocation program does not adequately reflect the true costs of school construction. The legislature made adjustments during the 2024 legislative session, but the actual costs of construction exceed the newly adjusted funding amounts.

Proposed Action: Provide further increases in state funding for both the area-cost allowance and the square-foot-per-student allocation for school construction.

Strategic Plan Alignment: Safety, Academic Excellence