Morning Fizz
Seattle's Ability to Annex White Center
1. Acting Seattle Schools Superintendent Dr. Susan Enfield sent a letter
to Seattle's delegation in Olympia late last week outlining her objections to the state senate's proposed three percent pay cut for teachers and school district employees. (The house budget does not include the pay cut; the senate says statewide districts can deal with the $251 million hit however they see fit.) [pullquote]Calling the senate's plan "not workable," Enfield dismisses the idea of the pay cut.[/pullquote]
Calling the senate's plan "not workable," Enfield dismissed the idea of the pay cut, noting that the district would have to reopen 14 different contract negotiations with 12 different bargaining units before school starts in the fall.
The two remaining options to deal with the shortfall, which represents a $6.1 million loss for Seattle, would include either canceling school days, which Enfield said would violate state law requiring a minimal number of instructional hours per school year, or decimating the district's rainy day fund from $15.7 million to $9.6 million.
In related news: The Washington Education Association, the teachers' union, held a convention in Tacoma this weekend and considered calling for a one-day strike next fall to protest pay cuts. The motion didn't pass, but they did agree on a yet-to-be-defined "Day of Action."
2. For the eight members of the Seattle city council who support the deep-bore tunnel, there's a stinging irony in King County Superior Court Judge Laura Middaugh's Friday decision : The section of the ordinance that makes it eligible for a public referendum—section six's process for issuing an intent to proceed after the final environmental impact statement is complete—was added to the ordinance by the council specifically to win public favor for the tunnel process. [pullquote]For the eight members of the Seattle city council who support the deep bore tunnel, there's a stinging irony in King County Superior Court Judge Laura Middaugh's Friday decision.[/pullquote]
Funny. After agreeing with the plaintiffs' objection to the referendum—that it was almost entirely administrative and not legislative, and therefore not subject to a referendum—Middaugh ruled that section six was legislative and thus eligible for a vote, one that's likely to give a public thumbs-down to the eight council members' preferred tunnel.
3. Governor Gregoire may upend Seattle's ability to annex White Center (something the council was set to decide next year) by vetoing a section of a bill today that would have exempted White Center from the state sales tax and transferred the money to Seattle.
4. The Oklahoma City Thunder, nee the Seattle SuperSonics, advanced to the NBA Western Conference finals this weekend.
Calling the senate's plan "not workable," Enfield dismissed the idea of the pay cut, noting that the district would have to reopen 14 different contract negotiations with 12 different bargaining units before school starts in the fall.
The two remaining options to deal with the shortfall, which represents a $6.1 million loss for Seattle, would include either canceling school days, which Enfield said would violate state law requiring a minimal number of instructional hours per school year, or decimating the district's rainy day fund from $15.7 million to $9.6 million.
In related news: The Washington Education Association, the teachers' union, held a convention in Tacoma this weekend and considered calling for a one-day strike next fall to protest pay cuts. The motion didn't pass, but they did agree on a yet-to-be-defined "Day of Action."
2. For the eight members of the Seattle city council who support the deep-bore tunnel, there's a stinging irony in King County Superior Court Judge Laura Middaugh's Friday decision : The section of the ordinance that makes it eligible for a public referendum—section six's process for issuing an intent to proceed after the final environmental impact statement is complete—was added to the ordinance by the council specifically to win public favor for the tunnel process. [pullquote]For the eight members of the Seattle city council who support the deep bore tunnel, there's a stinging irony in King County Superior Court Judge Laura Middaugh's Friday decision.[/pullquote]
Funny. After agreeing with the plaintiffs' objection to the referendum—that it was almost entirely administrative and not legislative, and therefore not subject to a referendum—Middaugh ruled that section six was legislative and thus eligible for a vote, one that's likely to give a public thumbs-down to the eight council members' preferred tunnel.
3. Governor Gregoire may upend Seattle's ability to annex White Center (something the council was set to decide next year) by vetoing a section of a bill today that would have exempted White Center from the state sales tax and transferred the money to Seattle.
4. The Oklahoma City Thunder, nee the Seattle SuperSonics, advanced to the NBA Western Conference finals this weekend.
