Phil Kronebusch and the Vote No on Propositions 7 and 8 Team urges voters to reject the Evergreen School District’s funding request
Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are those of the author alone and do not reflect the editorial position of ClarkCountyToday.com
Propositions 7 and 8 are supplemental school funding measures that ask district households to give more than the state has allocated to Evergreen Public Schools. For a $500,000 home, over four years, the taxpayer will pay $5095. Outlined below are some of the many reasons why not giving more to Evergreen would end the self-serving interests of its benefactors.
- The supplemental money is not primarily for education, but to enhance Teacher and Ancillary staff pay.
- Evergreens certified staff (teachers) make an average of $125,000 per year. They only work three quarters of the year and have a benefits package that is executive level. Years of poor academic performance do not justify this level of pay.
- Low test scores and past performance do not justify spending more money. From the Washington State Report Card (OSPI test score results):
- 38.8% of Students do not pass English Language Arts
- 46.9% of Students do not pass Math
- 41% of Students do not pass Science
- 77.6% of the Teachers have a master’s degree or higher
- Teachers on average have 15.2 years of experience
- Only 61.8% of the students attend 90% of the time, (vs. Camas 83.4%)
- $18,337 is spent on each student per year, (vs. Camas $16,959)
- The money is not for education alone but many non-educational items.
- Cyber security- will not enhance student performance.
- Multilingual learning-a statewide issue to be addressed by the legislature.
- Parent Square communication services- a duplication of standard email services
- Professional development- teachers are already compensated in salaries
- Security staff- cameras and monitoring devices already abound throughout the district buildings.
- Student and staff electronic devices- loss of fine motor skills and the ability to search, analyze, and report in a traditional format.
- Online curriculum- sadly in a district where only 60% attend 90% of the time, this has only amplified the problem.
- Network infrastructure, internet services, internet safety- can we justify the cost and benefit structure?
- District support of Social and Emotional agendas diminishes the educational experience and is costly.
- Social Emotional integration cost classroom time and enraged many parents.
- The DEI development portion consisted of a highly paid Coordinator and four staff members, who were later reduced due to budget considerations.
- Support for these programs caused budget reductions, the contentious loss of Librarians, and the reassignment of media specialists to only partially fill the labor gap.
- The Board has shown constant lack of judgement and leadership.
- Severance of two previous Superintendents with accompanying compensation package pay outs was costly to the district.
- The board will not reprioritize the budget and staff to correct educational deficiencies
- The threatened loss of Sports, Orchestra, Band, Choir, and Theater is a farce.
- Parents and community would be in a net gain from not paying future taxes
- All parents and community members will gain flexibility in how they financially support extracurricular activities (i.e. clubs, sports, singing, band, hobbies, music, theater)
Voting NO will force the Evergreen School Board to:
- Spend money on appropriate educational items only
- Defund social and emotional agendas
- Place resources toward educational excellence
- Value parents and the community
Phil Kronebusch
Vote No on Propositions 7 and 8 Team
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This a reauthorization levy–not an increase. It maintains current funding levels so voting against it will result in cuts.
How much should a teacher be paid in your opinion? And what is the basis for tying student performance to teacher performance? Seems to me there are more factors that go into student performance that go well beyond what a teacher can control. If parents don’t stress education and the importance of learning at home there is not much any teacher can do to force kids to learn. And, unfortunately, I see more kids flipping through Tik Tok than I do reading a book. Education is an opportunity and teacher’s are only a guide–they can’t force kids to learn and again, unfortunately, parents to parent.
My kids have excelled in the Evergreen Schools and will be out before this levy expires. I will continue to support funding schools with my tax dollars even after they are gone because I believe every kid deserves at least the opportunity to take advantage of the programs schools provide through levy funds.
By the way your signs are ugly. I can’t wait for them to come down.
It was not a good look for the teacher’s union to picket on strike on 162nd and Fourth Plain. Teachers were paid for 2 years of covid, while not in the classroom, then promptly went on strike. Who picked up the slack? Parents. And by the way, their signs were ugly too.
Excellent presentation! Yep, the truth hurts, sometimes… but what you’ve presented is the truth
Both ESD and VSD have a day of reckoning in their not-so-distant futures.
All I see is this is for the teacher to get raise which isn’t a bad thing, but nothing ever changes.
Quick Stats (2024-25)
No more tax money until these miserable statistics improve. Spend wisely.
Why are your test scores low? I would be you it’s because the curriculum being taught does not match the new state tests. Period.
Now you should go and ask if I am right. I can make everyone fail too by changing the test on them. They can’t go out and unpack all that’s on the test and get all new curriculum every other year when a new legislator has a flavor of the month new test to impose.
And if I’m right, you should vote for the levy.
Changing focus does not work. 27% math is b/c of a bad test is good enough for you? And now my taxes need to go up for ‘the kids’? Voted no.
Sorry you voted no. It’s not a tax INCREASE. It is a continuation of the previous levy, so it wouldn’t affect your taxes at all. If this doesn’t pass, the students are the ones being hurt. This money IS NOT going to teacher salaries. Anyone who thinks that didn’t do their research. Instead of denying the district money that it actually does need. Why don’t you get involved? Go to the board meetings. Make them cut the fat at the top instead of hurting the students and teachers. Yet again, everyone blames the teachers. If you aren’t in a school every day, then you have NO IDEA, what teachers are dealing with. It isn’t pretty. And it’s only going to get worse if funding is cut.
I have never understood how cutting funding improves anything. Please explain.
Good money after bad never fixes anything.