Please don’t let your students down

Following the election held on March 9, three of our local school districts, Arlington, Lakewood and Monroe, are once again preparing to ask voters for renewal of their maintenance and operations levies.

The initial failure to pass these levies has created a significant level of stress within these school districts as there will be only one more election attempt allowed in this calendar year. Failure again will significantly harm the students, parents, staffs, and communities of Arlington, Lakewood, and Monroe.

Anyone familiar with current school funding realities would agree that the loss of levy funding would have a devastating effect on the day-to-day school operations and the programs and services provided to children. We are asking you to read the following information carefully and then please respond by voting "Yes" to renew our levies on April 27.

The levies you are voting on are not new taxes. They are simply a renewal of a tax commitment made in the past. Just as magazine subscriptions expire after a period of time, the current levies are expiring at the end of this year.

The April 27 election is to renew the existing levies beyond this year. We are asking for a four-year renewal instead of two years as we have in the past. We are doing this to help hold down the costs of running more frequent elections and to help us with more efficient and predictable long-range planning. We want to get the most out of every dollar we receive.

These levies have become necessary as state funding has failed to fully pay for the services that schools are expected to provide. For example, special education and transportation costs far exceed the reimbursement provided by the state. Other examples include updated curriculum materials, staff training, school security, technology improvements, facilities maintenance, counseling and health services, and activities such as music, drama and athletics that school districts receive no direct funding to support but which constructively occupy our students’ time and create positive community identification with our schools.

Without levy dollars, each of these examples and more would have to be scaled back significantly or eliminated.

Your vote makes a real difference in these elections. Levy elections are held to a higher standard than other elections. Even though by democratic standards a simple majority prevails, in school funding elections a 60 percent supermajority is required. In fact, these levies have already easily exceeded a simple majority and would have passed on March 9 except for the supermajority rule. Now our districts not only have to pay for another election to be held, we also have to begin the nonproductive and disruptive process of planning and preparing for the possible loss of levy funding just in case of another failure on April 27.

If you think for a moment that one vote doesn’t matter, you are wrong. If Arlington had received only 15 more "Yes" votes, the levy would have passed by the supermajority standard.

Passage of these levies allows continuing progress toward higher standards of student achievement mandated (but not fully funded) by the federal and state governments. We have been striving for smaller class sizes and more individualized help for students who need it. We are more carefully tracking each student’s progress so we can identify potential academic problems and intervene earlier. We are working on curriculum improvements and training teachers to enable our students to meet or exceed state graduation requirements.

If we fail to pass these levies, the outlook is grim. The vast majority of our costs are in staff members providing services directly or indirectly to kids. If our levies were to fail, a significant number of people would be laid off or have hours reduced. This would mean larger class sizes, fewer classified employees such as educational assistants, custodians, maintenance and food service workers, and bus drivers. Activities such as music, drama, athletics, Hi-Q and outside educational opportunities would be scaled way back or in some cases eliminated altogether.

New curriculum, technology, and training would have to be postponed. Preventative maintenance on facilities in which you have already invested would be reduced, shortening the useful lives of those facilities. Obsolete buses would not be replaced. The morale of students, staff and the community would suffer. The effects of a double levy failure would significantly impact our students, schools and communities for years.

Our children need your vote. They are depending on you to renew your commitment to existing funding. Parents, if each of you fulfills your responsibility to vote to support your children’s education, these measures will pass. Please vote "Yes" for kids on April 27.

Submitted by the boards of directors of the Arlington, Lakewood and Monroe school districts.

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