The Lincoln County School District wants to hear from Waldport and Yachats-area residents on how it should spend $4.6 million in additional state money because of a new tax on large businesses that took effect Jan. 1.
Called the Oregon Student Success Act, Gov. Kate Brown signed the legislation into law last spring. It will create an estimated $2 billion over the course of two years by imposing a tax on businesses with more than $1 million in gross receipts in the state.
Half of the new taxes will go directly to school districts based on their economic needs and the other half is divvied up among various statewide initiatives and early childhood education programs.
Districts must identify how they will spend their new funds but they must be spent in four areas: expanding learning time, student health and safety, reducing class sizes, and/or providing “well-rounded learning experiences.”
The Lincoln County School District’s 2019-20 general fund budget is $71.1 million. It now expects an additional $4.6 million per year to invest in educational improvements and is starting a series of meetings and online questionnaires to get public comments.
“We need staff, student, family, and community voices in this conversation to help guide our spending plan,” Superintendent Karen Gray said in a news release.
The district is scheduling community forums in four areas of the district, will hold meetings with stakeholder groups, and conduct an online survey such as the one posted to the school district website on Friday, Jan. 31.
The district’s first forum seeking ideas is for the Waldport-Yachats area. It will start at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 11 at Crestview Heights Elementary. Other forums are scheduled for Feb. 25 in Newport, March 2 in Taft and March 10 in Toledo.
Oregon, like many states, significantly altered school funding in the early 1990s by simultaneously shifting funding from the local to state level and capping property-tax increases. This combination limited the ability of local school districts to raise revenue. It also put additional responsibility on Oregon lawmakers to provide funding for schools – but without specifying how to pay for it.
As a result, along with other factors, for the past 30 years school funding, performance, and outcomes have lagged. Oregon currently has the second-worst graduation rate in the country, and the shortest school year.
