State Superintendent sues 7 school districts over levy use, Mercer Island not among them

By Jerry Cornfield

By Jerry Cornfield

Herald Staff Writer

State Superintendent Randy Dorn filed a lawsuit against seven Washington school districts Tuesday, demanding they stop using local levy dollars to pay teacher salaries and other expenses of basic education.

“This is not a step I want to take,” Dorn stated in a Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction press release. “But four years after McCleary v. Washington, the Legislature has failed to provide adequate education funding and it has failed to create an equitable funding system.”

The lawsuit, filed in King County Superior Court, names the Everett, Seattle, Bellevue, Spokane, Tacoma, and Puyallup school districts as well as Evergreen School District in Vancouver. The state is also a defendant because the use of local levies is a creation of state law.

The suit contends that the state Supreme Court has made clear the state must provide ample funding for public schools “by means of dependable and regular tax sources.” Using local levy dollars doesn’t meet that test because those funds are susceptible to shifting property values and the whim of the electorate.

Rather, the court has said any money raised from local property tax levies approved by voters can only be spent on enrichment programs.

But Dorn contends the court’s McCleary decision doesn’t make clear whether it’s OK for school districts to use this source of money for basic education if they are not receiving enough money from the state to cover those costs.

Districts are resorting to the use of supplemental contracts funded by levy dollars to boost pay. These contracts provide additional money for “time, responsibility, or incentives” or TRI, and can add up to tens of thousands of dollars a year in additional earnings.

In 2014, the average statewide pay for teachers was $52,944 but the average actual salary was $66,605. The difference of $13,661 came from local levies, according to the suit. For administrators, the difference worked out to $55,136 annually and with classified staff it totaled $14,091, the suit contends.