Wapato School District Officials Making Trip To Lobby Lawmakers

Wapato Public Schools is sending a team to Olympia this week to lobby for school funding. The team is scheduled to meet with 15th District Senator Jim Honeyford and 15th District Representatives Bruce Chandler and David Taylor as well as key members of the House and Senate Education and Budget committees.

The group will be reminding lawmakers how important Levy Equalization money is to the Wapato District. The District receives nearly $3-million in Levy Equalization. Any cuts to it would be devastating to the District’s basic education budget. The team will also be sharing information about the value of All Day Kindergarten.

The District knows some tough decisions have to be made during this Special Session in order to fill a $2-billion hole in the State budget. It also understands, since education makes up the bulk of the State budget some kind of cut is coming. It just wants to make sure lawmakers know that protecting Levy Equalization is the District’s top priority and that any cuts should be equitable across the board for all Districts and they should be non-negotiable.

The team from Wapato is made up of the Superintendent, Becky Imler, School Board member, Ron Wilcox, Business Manager, Sylvia Bazan and Human Resources Director, Kelly Garza. The team is scheduled to be in Olympia Wednesday, November 30th.

Wapato is just one of several school districts from the ESD 105 region making lobbying trips during the Special Session that started Monday.