The 2016-17 school year starts today, and the Mercer Island School Board has hit the ground running, holding two meetings in the past two weeks to discuss the operating budget, teacher contract negotiations and policy changes for field trips and discipline.

The board also discussed closeout of the 2014 bond projects, including the newly-opened Northwood Elementary, and the renovations at the high school and at Islander Middle School, which will have a dedication ceremony on Oct. 1.

The first reading for the district operating budget was held on Aug. 22, with a second reading and public hearing on Aug. 29.

The biggest challenge facing the district comes from the state level, with the looming levy lid cliff. The district is setting aside reserves so that if the McCleary decision and education funding situation are not resolved by April, Mercer Island will not have to terminate any teacher contracts. CFO Dean Mack said that the district is “running up the fund balance a little” to grant a one-year reprieve.

School Board members Dave Myerson, David D’Souza and Tracy Drinkwater asked on Aug. 22 about other revenue sources, including transportation efficiencies, impact fees and fines for drivers illegally passing school buses, respectively.

Mack said that the district brought in $85,000 in three months from impact fees, but that they depend on new home construction, and that the fines for passing school buses are not a long-term source of revenue.

The board also discussed the decisions to split the field trip policy into two categories: day trips and extended/international trips. Students will be required to sign a trip behavior agreement and sign in and out from trip locations. Changes will be communicated to parents and staff.

Another policy change comes in student conduct expectations and reasonable sanctions, to align with House Bill 1541, which was adopted by the state Legislature in its last session. It requires suspended or expelled students to receive educational services, prohibits students from being suspended or expelled for discretionary offenses and sets the maximum suspension length as one academic term, instead of one year.

Jennifer Wright, the district’s director of learning and technology services, said that “exceptional misconduct” is rare in the district, and that she can recall three incidents in the past 10 years where a student was suspended for more than 10 days.

Superintendent Dr. Gary Plano discussed the results of the bargain with the Mercer Island Education Association (MIEA) during his report. He said that as a tradeoff for introducing the Spanish world language program in elementary schools, teachers will be given more planning time — about 210 minutes per week instead of 150 minutes.

Teachers at the four elementary schools were split about what that would look like. Two settled on a rotating schedule with 40 minute instruction time, while the other two liked the idea of a half hour.

MIEA President Mike Radow addressed the board during its public input period, and said that though he was concerned about the idea of different schedules, it was a “successful” bargain.

The board also discussed a complaint by a family with three kids in three different elementary schools who had missed the appeal window due to a miscommunication, and granted the family the opportunity to appeal to the superintendent.

The district had 98 to 100 requests for transfers, and was able to accommodate about 50, Plano said.

The appeal “doesn’t necessarily guarantee a positive outcome,” Drinkwater said, and if the district’s answer is not satisfactory, the family still had the opportunity to appeal to the board on Monday.

For more, see www.mercerislandschools.org.