Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1938-04-21
TO VOTE ON
SCHOOL LEVY.


sion being the annual public hearing
for preliminary budget estimate fol
the coming school year.
Informed of a shortage of revenue
for the coming year, the board was
faced with the problem of trying to
run the schools next year on an eight
per cent smaller budget, or else resort
to a special levy in addition to the
ten mills permitted without special ca
section. Both alternatives offer un-
fortunate disadvantages.
In the case of accommodating the
school program next year to the re-
duced budget, the sacrifice of one
member of the teaching staff would
be inevitable. Some other schools, in
Guiding Hartline, have had to cut out
teacher.
To lose faculty member in larger
schools merely adds to the other tea
chers' duties and does not curtail any
subjects taught, but in very small
ones, such as Coulee City, the loss of
high school teacher means dropping
some courses altogether, since less
than four teachers cannot show train
ing in enough different fields to per-
NIT them to teach all the subjects.
would Curtail Activities
Here it would probably be cooking,
sewing, girls activities basketball
and supervised playhour) and book
keeping or shorthand that would have
to be omitted from next years study
program.
In the case of voting extra millage,
the obstacle is getting out the neces-
sary number of patrons to vote. TT
used to be easy, and Coulee City al
ways voted extra millage, patrons will
remember, but since the passage of
the 40-mil1 initiative four years ago,
it is required that 40 per cent of all
those who voted at the last general
election vote at the special school ell
ection. This means that 169 people
would have to vote at the special ell
ection in order to make it valid. The
difficulty of getting out such a large
vote in suggested in community
where board director elections gener-
ally bring cut only dozen or two
voters. Il
Superintendent Backus explained
for the group the factors which have
been responsible for decrease of rev.
enue and the factors which have tend
ed to offset these handicaps in GER
tain years. The factors tending to Ill
pair the financial status of the dis
trict during the past several-year per-
io,; are:
Valuation Is Low
l. The fact that the district s valu-
alton is at best but nalf million,
whereas the state department regaru,
million dollars as minimum for an
accredited district.
2. A general decrease of valuation
over the period.
3. The 40-mill initiative legislation
made it virtually impossible to pass
special levy so that attempts to
raise more than the permitted 10
mills have not been made since 1884.
4. Improvement of the heating
plant was necessary in 1886, requir-
ing extra expenditure of about $1,000
S. Purchase of bus last year 1887
3S) required extra expenditure, sune
OF which has had to carry over to
next year.
6. The minimum wage law went
into force this year, requiring the dis
trict to pay each teacher the mimi
mum of $1,000 per year, raise OF
3S per cent in salaries for some grade
positions, thereby seriously handicap
inp normal expenditures for supplies,
books and improvements.
7 Current taxes are coming It
slowly at this time, the district havs
ing gone back onto a warrant basis
until May payments come in, this nee
essitation an expenditure for Warrant
interest. In next weeks paper each Of
these factors will be explained at
greater length.
Redeeming Features
To offset these handicaps, There
were two factors. (1) The Showalter
Bill took effect in 1885, whereby the
state assumed roughly two-thirds OF
the cost of the schools instead of one
third, as formerly; and (2), taxes
which went delinsuent during the dc;
preston years came in during 1885
36-37-38 to offset the cost of heating
plant and improved transportation.
1t was decided by the beard that
the issue should be put squarely up to