Legislative Priorities 2025-26

In the Northshore School Board, proactive planning is a core value. To support the work of our district, we appreciate our legislators’ support in addressing these important items.

Eliminate or Fund Unfunded Mandates in All Policy Areas

  • Work with our legislators to address the impact of accumulated unfunded mandates and the resulting deficits.

    • Advocate for updates/amendments to create K-12 exceptions, discounts or opt-outs, e.g. HB 5814 (sales tax), HB 2301 (composting), Family Medical Leave, translation services.

    • Identify state grants or programs to provide funding to fill the gaps.

    • Educate the legislature on the fiscal impact of mandates that have required cuts in staff and programs, with direct, negative impact on students.

  • Work with legislators to ensure no new policy bill is passed without a complete fiscal analysis by all agencies and require full funding to cover the impact.
    • Identify any new unfunded mandates and provide fiscal analysis.

      • Exclude K-12 from any new fees or taxes across policy areas.

      • Provide discounted rates or taxes on education-related infrastructure expenditures.
  • Advocate against addition of new state graduation requirements to an already over-burdened curriculum.

    • Added requirements leave students with less choice or room to innovate.

    • Added requirements detract from meeting college entrance requirements.

Create a Sustainable Funding System that Matches Student Needs 

  • Work with the Legislature (and K-12 Funding Equity Workgroup) to replace Washington's current outdated and unsustainable education funding model.
    • How can we provide support staff (mental health professionals, assistant principals, deans) to meet the increasingly complex needs of today's students?
    • Design a funding mechanism that reflects and supports our evolution to applied mastery of skills. Northshore's Innovation Lab High School provides a model that can be expanded.
    • Provide ample funding for the ever-rising costs of all aspects of education (multilingual learning, substitute costs, staff salaries).
    • Incorporate a transportation funding model that covers actual costs to move us to sustainable electric vehicles, including funding for infrastructure.
  • Recent investments and attention to special education were appreciated, but funding still falls far short of the cost of education in 2025.
    • The resulting shuffle of funds from General to Special Education does nothing to eliminate the funding deficit
    • While the new accounting method may give the appearance of full funding for Special Education specific expenditures, it simply moves that deficit to the general fund for all students, in an apparent direct violation of McCleary.
    • This renders LRE data irrelevant, eliminating the LRE impact, while undercutting Inclusion.
    • The projected Northshore Special education deficit of $21.7M (31% of our local levy) has now become a deficit in our basic education fund.
  • A more realistic approach to inflationary pressures and local cost of living adjustments (IPD vs. CPI) will
    • Move toward competitive classified salaries, which have lagged behind.
    • MSOC funding must be accountable and transparent, by line item, as expenditures are required to be, to address skyrocketing inflation in components such as liability insurance and utilities.
  • Support Innovation for Student Growth: Decreasing the funding deficit will give choice back to communities, on how state dollars can best be used for community-specific needs.
    • Removes impediments to local control, prioritization of instructional needs.
    • Prevents further elimination of programs, to leave room for student innovation.

Pass Simple Majority for School Capital Bonds

  • The 60% supermajority requirement to pass school construction bonds leaves many communities in unsafe, outdated schools that are highly energy inefficient.
  • Simple majority for both bonds and levies would help eliminate this inequity by allowing more communities to access state assistance to build more energy and cost-efficient schools.

Support Climate Action/Energy Cost Efficiency in Schools 

  • Provide multi-year grants and programs for projects such as solar power, electric buses, safe bicycle lanes, and building cooling systems.
  • Solar panels on all school roofs and geothermal HVAC could virtually eliminate energy costs, for significant savings for districts and the state.
  • Our students, our future voters, are already fully invested and take pride in their new schools that incorporate energy efficiency.