Education leaders seek support of Washington’s students

e leaders of Washington’s statewide organizations representing parents and families, teachers, principals, classi ed school employees, superintendents, school board members, and state superintendent have four top priorities for supporting Washington’s students this legislative session. Below is their joint statement.

As the leaders of Washington’s K–12 education organizations representing our public school students, educators, school sta , and families, we are deeply connected to the needs of our students and schools in every community across our state.

We know our schools play an integral role in supporting their students’ learning and mental health recovery. Recovery in one community does not look identical to recovery in another community; however, there are some critical needs that are consistent across the state, and we are seeking action and investment by the Legislature this session to address them.

Support for all four of these priorities will allow for local voter-approved levies to focus on the unique needs of their community instead of providing for services that are the state’s responsibility to fund.

First, we are asking the Legislature to fully fund special education services for our students with disabilities.

Public school districts have a moral and legal obligation to provide each of their students with access to a free and appropriate public education where they are supported to progress in grade-level learning standards. rough special education, schools provide students with disabilities with specially designed instruction that addresses the unique needs of eligible students at no cost to families.

ough progress has been made, last school year, school districts across the state still spent $400 million in local funds to cover the gap in state funding that is necessary to support students with disabilities.

We are also asking the Legislature to ensure each of Washington’s students has access to nutritious meals at school at no out-of-pocket costs to the student or their family.

When students’ basic needs — like the need to eat — aren’t taken care of, their learning is impacted. Even when they are eligible for free and reduced-price meals, many students, especially in the older grades, do not participate due to stigma.

Combining some incredible legislative investments last year with the federal meal supports, over 65% of our students have access to free school meals this year. We need the Legislature to nish the progress we’ve already made and ensure all of Washington’s students have access to nutritious, free meals as part of the school day. e Legislature can support our school employees and prevent turnover of talented sta by:

In addition, we are asking the Legislature to nally x the outdated and broken funding model for student transportation. Like special education services, many districts are still using local voter-approved levies to fund transportation even though it is a basic education function that should be fully funded by the state.

Student safety is the number one priority for our schools and that should not be a function of the wealth of the community.

Finally, we are asking the Legislature to support our students by ensuring school districts have the resources to recruit and retain highly e ective educators and sta .

Our state has made important progress in school employee salaries, but the current funding formula often does not fund school districts equitably.

• Equitably funding neighboring school districts in a region.

• Ensuring that the full impacts of in ation are addressed in employee compensation, especially for our lowest paid employees who are most impacted by rising costs of living.

• Providing additional sta ng supports that focus on student mental health, family engagement, and learning acceleration.

Our schools put their students’ needs at the center of all their decision-making.

As the Legislature contemplates policy changes and additional investments, we ask them to follow the lead of the educators in their communities by also centering their work on student success and well-being.

-- is commentary is written by the following people: Joel Aune, executive director, Washington Association of School Administrators; Larry Delaney, president, Washington Education Association; Andrew Estep, executive director, Washington State PTA; Tim Garchow, executive director, Washington State School Directors’ Association; Chris Reykdal, state superintendent of public instruction; Scott Seaman, executive director, Association of Washington School Principals; Charlotte Shindler, president, Public School Employees of Washington and Jessica Vavrus, executive director, Washington Association of Educational Service Districts.

LETTERS

County council, executive ‘are being watched’

Editor, is is a letter I sent to the Whatcom County Council and County Executive Sidhu. I am writing to you regarding council’s Jan. 24 meeting. is is not to comment on any of the speakers that presented information, although I do agree with the majority of what they said. is is about the attitude of Council and County Executive toward their constituents.

My wife and I do not attend many council meetings, but decided to attend the meeting along with several other County residents to support some friends who spoke. Needless to say that we all came away with the same outcome with the way the speakers were treated. We all found that the actions by the council members were disrespectful and that almost all of the members continued to look at their laptops while speakers were speaking.

If you are looking at comments on the Zoom feed, that can wait, as the in-person audience is not allowed to make comments. Only a few of the members made eye contact with the speaker and that was accompanied by the occasional smirk.

I understand that there might be the occasional emergency phone call, but several council members walked out in the middle of someone’s speech. At least wait until the speech was over, it won’t be longer than three minutes. County Executive Sidhu could not have looked more uninterested in the proceedings if he tried. He looked like he had a total disdain for the county workers who spoke on their working conditions.

If I had a boss that acted that way toward me, my HR department would be noti ed immediately. All of these actions give the appearance that you really don’t care what the constituents that you took an oath to serve actual matter to you.

I recommend you all work on changing the actions/habits as you are being watched and will be judged in the next election cycle.

Matt Skinner Lynden

Submitting letters or commentaries

e Lynden Tribune and Ferndale Record newspapers encourage guest opinions as well as letters to the editor. However, submissions must refrain from attacking individuals without providing supporting documentation or a rational and legally defensible justi cation Letters should be emailed to editor@lyndentribune.com and must be received by noon Monday if they are to publish in that Wednesday’s newspaper.

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Your letter or guest opinion must include your full name, complete address and telephone number. Your address and telephone number will not be printed in the newspaper, but will be used for veri cation by newspaper sta . Neither unsigned letters nor letters containing personal attacks of a libelous nature will be published.

e Tribune and Record newspapers reserve the right to edit or refuse any letter. Furthermore, space limitations may also preclude letters from being published.

All columns and letters on the opinion page are the views of the authors and do not necessarily re ect the views of the Lynden Tribune or Ferndale Record newspaper.

Federal President Joe Biden (D), The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania. Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20500; Public comment desk, 202-456-1111; email form at whitehouse.gov/contact. Website: joebiden. com.

U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D), 511 Hart Senate O ce Building, Washington, DC 20510, 202-224-3441; Public comment form at cantwell.senate.gov/contact. Website: cantwell.senate.gov.

U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D), 154 Russell Senate O ce Building, Washington, D.C. 20510, 202-224-2621; Public comment email form at murray.senate. gov/write-to-patty; Website: murray.senate.gov.

U.S. Representative Rick Larsen (D), 2163 Rayburn HOB, Washington, DC 20515, 202-225-2605; Public comment email form at larsen.house.gov/contact. Website: larsen.house.gov.

State Governor Jay Inslee (D), O ce of the Governor, PO Box 40002, Olympia, WA 98504-0002, 360-902-4111; Public contact email form at governor.wa.gov/ contact. Website: governor.wa.gov.

Senator Sharon Shewmake (D), 213 John A. Cherberg Building, PO Box 40442, Olympia, WA 98504, 800-5626000 or 360-305-0356; Public comment email at app.leg.wa.gov/pbc/member-

Email/42/2. Or email Legislative Assistant Sarah Soulliere atSarah.Soulliere@ leg.wa.gov. Website: senatedemocrats. wa.gov/Shewmake.

Representative Alicia Rule (D), JLOB 334, PO Box 40600, Olympia, WA 985040600, 360-746-3744; Public comment email at https://app.leg.wa.gov/pbc/ memberEmail/42/1. Or email Legislative

Assistant Rachel Campbell at Rachel.

Campbell@leg.wa.gov. Website: housedemocrats.wa.gov/rule.

Representative Joe Timmons (D) JLOB 419, PO Box 40600, Olympia, WA 98504-0600; Toll-free hotline: 800562-6000, 360-786-7854. Email: Joe. Timmons@leg.wa.gov or public comment email at app.leg.wa.gov/pbc/memberEmail/42/2. Or contact Legislative Assistant Hayden Jenkins at (360) 786-6854 or (360) 718-5299 or email Hayden. Jenkins@leg.wa.gov. Website: housedemocrats.wa.gov/timmons.

County

Whatcom County Executive Satpal Sidhu, 311 Grand Ave. Suite 108, Bellingham, WA 98225-4082, 360-778-5200; Email: ssidhu@co.whatcom.wa.us. Website: https://www.whatcomcounty. us/415/County-Executive.

Whatcom County Council Member Kaylee Galloway District 1, 311 Grand Ave., Suite 105, Bellingham, WA 98225; 360-489-9192; Email: kgallowa@ co.whatcom.wa.us. Website: https:// www.whatcomcounty.us/3862/KayleeGalloway.

Whatcom County Council Member Todd Donovan District 2, 311 Grand Ave., Suite 105, Bellingham, WA 98225; 360-483-8474; Email: tdonovan@ co.whatcom.wa.us. Website: https://www. whatcomcounty.us/2261/Todd-DonovanCouncil-Chair.

Whatcom County Council Member Tyler Bird District 3 (Everson, Nooksack Sumas), 311 Grand Ave., Suite 105, Bellingham, WA 98225; 360-778-5021; Email: tbyrd@co.whatcom.wa.us. Website: whatcomcounty.us/2769/Tyler-Byrd.

Whatcom County Council Member Kathy Kershner District 4 (Lynden), 311 Grand Ave., Suite 105, Bellingham, WA 98225; 360-220-7535; Email: KKershne@ co.whatcom.wa.us. Website: whatcomcounty.us/3322/Kathy-Kershner.

Whatcom County Council Member Ben Elenbaas District 5 (Ferndale/ Custer), 311 Grand Ave., Suite 105, Bellingham, WA 98225, 360-778-5025; Email: BElenbaa@co.whatcom.wa.us; Website: https://www.whatcomcounty.us/3321/ Ben-Elenbaas.

Whatcom County Council Member

Barry Buchanan At Large Position A, 311 Grand Ave., Suite 105, Bellingham, WA 98225; 360-224-4330; Email: bbuchanan@co.whatcom.wa.us; Website: https:// www.whatcomcounty.us/1975/BarryBuchanan.

Whatcom County Council Member Carol Frazey At Large Position B, 311 Grand Ave., Suite 105, Bellingham, WA 98225; 360-778-5024; Email: cfrazey@ co.whatcom.wa.us; Website: https://www. whatcomcounty.us/2996/Carol-Frazey.

North Whatcom Municipal City of Everson, 111 W. Main St./PO Box 315, Everson, WA 98247, 360-9663411; Mayor John Perry, email: mayor@ ci.everson.wa.us. City Clerk/Treasurer Melanie Dickinson, email: mdickinson@ ci.everson.wa.us. Website: ci.everson. wa.us.

City of Ferndale, 2095 Main St./ P.O. Box 936 Ferndale, WA 98248, 360384-4302; Mayor Greg Hansen, 360685-2350 ext. 1105, email greghansen@ cityo erndale.org. City Administrator Jori Burnett, 360-685-2351 ext. 1104, email joriburnett@cityo erndale.org. Website: cityo erndale.org. City of Lynden, 300 4th St. Lynden, WA 98264, 360-354-1170; Mayor Scott Korthuis, email korthuiss@lyndenwa.org; City Administrator John Williams, email williamsj@lyndenwa.org.

City of Nooksack, 103 W Madison

St, Nooksack, WA 98276, 360-966-2531. Mayor Kevin Hester kevin@cityofnooksack.com. Clerk/Treasurer Virginia Arnason, email: virginia@cityofnooksack.com.

Website: cityofnooksack.com.

City of Sumas, 433 Cherry St./ P.O. Box 9 Sumas, WA 98295, 360-988-5711; Mayor Bruce Bosch, email: Bbosch@ cityofsumas.com. Finance Director Jennifer Bell, email: jbell@cityofsumas.com.

North Whatcom Public education Blaine School District, 765 H St., Blaine, WA 98230, 360-332-5881.

Superintendent Christopher Granger, email: cgranger@ blainesd.org. Website: blainesd.org.

Ferndale School District, 6041 Vista Drive/P.O. Box 698 Ferndale, WA 98248, 360-383-9200. Superintendent Kristi Dominguez, 360-386-9207, email: Kristi. Dominguez@ferndalesd.org. Website: ferndalesd.org.

Lynden School District, 516 Main St., Lynden, WA 98264, 360-354-4443.

Superintendent David VanderYacht, 360-354-4443 ext. 3414, email: vanderyachtd@lynden.wednet.edu. Website: lynden.wednet.edu.

Meridian School District, 214 W. Laurel Road, Bellingham, WA 98226, 360398-7111. Superintendent James Everett, email: jeverett@ meridian.wednet.edu. Website: meridian.wednet.edu

Mount Baker School District, 4956 Deming Road/P.O. Box 95 Deming, WA 98244, 360-383-2000. Superintendent Mary Sewright, 360-617-4600, msewright@mtbaker.wednet.edu. Website: mtbaker.wednet.edu.

Nooksack Valley School District, 3326 E. Badger Road, Everson, WA 98247, 360-988-4754. Superintendent Matt Galley, email: matt.galley@nv.k12.wa.us. Website: nv.k12.wa.us.