In Snohomish County, financial problems are growing for the Marysville school district.
Marysville parents and teachers are in turmoil after the Washington Schools Risk Management Pool board voted to drop Marysville schools. That means their liability insurance could end on August 31.
This once again calls on parents for change at the top.
Parents have been pushing for a change in the board for months. They believe the school district is poorly managed. And now the district could lose liability insurance, almost certainly costing taxpayers more.
Marysville finds itself in a place where no district in the Washington Schools Risk Management Pool has faced a unanimous vote to end its insurance contract in decades.
“It’s a big blow,” said Jolleh ‘J’ Hooman. “The unfortunate thing is that our children are the ones who will suffer the most from this.”
Parent and activist Hooman says this is the latest financial blow to a struggling school district that has had enough already.
Budget deficits, teacher layoffs, staff reductions, and now this.
“We already have many students who are not receiving the types of services that their own individualized education plans outline,” Hooman said.
Additionally, this was the first public acknowledgment by Marysville school officials that the district is facing an insurance policy termination, two full months after Marysville was voted out.
“If most people read these documents,” said Becky Roberts, president of the Marysville Education Association, “it’s a red flag.”
The Risk Management pool cited Marysville’s extraordinarily high liability costs, much of which stemmed from the deadly mass shooting at Marysville-Pilchuck High School in 2014.
Then Marysville reneged on an agreement to cover $100,000 of the costs.
The president of the Marysville Education Association is renewing a call teachers and parents made months ago for a change at the top.
She was asked if the district can weather another financial storm?
“We really have no other choice,” Roberts said. “We have no choice but to weather this financial storm.”
School officials declined to comment on camera. They have appealed the district’s termination. As it stands now, it will come into force in August.
