With the state’s levy lid lift expiring at the end of 2017, the Mercer Island School District expects to face a 4 percent funding loss, or roughly $1.8 million.

At the school board’s retreat Jan. 26, Superintendent Dr. Gary Plano expressed urgency to board members toward sending a message to Olympia, regarding a timely resolution to levy funding that won’t harm the school district.

“I would suggest to you as individuals to contact your local representatives and share your thoughts with them,” Plano told board members.

Plano recently traveled to Olympia to testify in favor of House Bill 2698, which would delay implementation of revisions to the school levy lid and local effort assistance. The bill is currently placed on second reading in the Legislature.

Although the levy cliff will roll back 4 percent of school district funding, Plano said additional state resources are anticipated, to the tune of $3 billion statewide, to meet McCleary requirements. But those resources won’t arrive before the levy cliff shortfall.

“This bill that I testified on is simply a bridge to help us get from where we are to where we’re trying to go without dealing with a potential one-year gap of a $1.8 million reduction,” he said.

Plano said the challenge before lawmakers will be figuring out how to “hold school districts harmless” in the process of rolling back local levies while meeting the state requirement of fully funding education.

Part of the problem, he said, was the Legislature not passing a tax increase to serve as a funding mechanism for state schools. Another issue Plano cited was Time, Responsibility and Incentive (TRI) pay, which allows school districts to bargain locally to collect revenue to augment teacher salaries for their additional time and work.

“It is hard for us to be held harmless. There is harm to the highest tax-collecting districts, if you will, who have worked their teacher contracts to fund a seven-period day,” he said. “That’s a local decision. That’s not something that Orting or Enumclaw has.”

Plano noted each school district operates with different work rules, and said the money provided by the state falls short of funding a seven-period day, which Mercer Island High School currently has. That’s before considering costs associated with teacher contracts in collective bargaining.

“Part of the local levy authority is allowing us to meet the work rule requirements that the state has said, ‘You must collectively bargain with your teachers,’” Plano said. “You can’t tie our hands. You can’t just develop a formula, go do it and then not give us enough money to implement these programs at a local level.”