House Education Committee hears simple majority for bonds bill

Articulate parents from Tacoma, Lake Washington and Vancouver spoke strongly in favor of HB 2441 and HJR 4216, bills that would lower the 60% requirement to a simple majority for school bond elections. The parents are active members of their local PTAs and have worked on their bond measures.

Also speaking in favor were WSSDA, WEA, the Education Alliance, and the Puget Sound Schools Coalition.

Of the 24 bond measures on the ballot February 11, representing nearly $3 billion in requests, in unofficial results, 13 are failing. Of those, 10 would have also passed with a simple majority.

Speaking on other bills were school directors Anne Moore (Issaquah) and Glen Morgan (Rochester) on a bill that would allow school districts to post legal notices on their web site instead of in the closest daily newspaper. While the savings to the district isn't huge, both argued that it would cut some costs and provide broader reach in many cases.

HB 2319 is sponsored by Rep. Chad Magendanz, R-Issaquah, and is a WSSDA-adopted position titled "Legal Notices." Magendanz said that legal notices,in all but one case, were significantly more expensive than the general advertising rate. "School district need the flexibility to communicate in the best way," he said. "We require that school districts buy a product," and it's time to change that practice, he said.

Speaking against the bill were representatives of the newspaper industry.

School director Karen Vialle (Tacoma) testified in favor HB 2291, a bill that would require a majority of school board members on both of the boards considering a boundary change to agree before school boundaries could be changed.

Sponsored by Rep. Liz Pike, R-Camas, the bill was shared with the WSSDA legislative committee last summer; the committee did not adopt a position but was split on the issue. Lawmakers also seemed unconvinced, and Rep. Kathy Haigh, D-Shelton, said she had put the ESD as the neutral party in place years ago to avoid some of the issues that were being raised in the hearing.