MARYSVILLE, Wash. — In Snohomish County, deepening financial troubles for the Marysville school district.
Marysville parents and teachers are in an uproar after the board of the Washington Schools Risk Management Pool voted to drop Marysville schools. That means their liability insurance could end on August 31st.
This has parents calling once again for a change at the top.
Parents have been calling for a change in administration for months. They believe the school district is being mismanaged. And now the district could lose liability insurance, almost certain to cost taxpayers more.
Marysville finds itself where no district in the Washington Schools Risk Management Pool has been in decades facing a unanimous vote to terminate its insurance contract.
“It’s a big blow,” said Jolleh ‘J’ Hooman. “The unfortunate thing is that our kids are the ones who are going to suffer the most from this.”
Parent and activist Hooman says it is the latest financial blow for a struggling school district that has had plenty of them.
Budget shortfalls, teacher layoffs, staff reductions, and now this.
“We already have a lot of students that are not receiving the types of services that their own individualized education plans outline,” Hooman said.
Moreover, this was the first public admission by Marysville school officials that the district faces termination of its insurance policy, a full two months after Marysville was voted out.
“When most people read those documents,” said Becky Roberts, Marysville Education Association President, “it’s a red flag.”
Indeed, the Risk Management pool cited Marysville’s extraordinarily high liability cost, much of it stemming from the deadly mass shooting at the Marysville-Pilchuck High school in 2014.
Then Marysville reneged on an agreement to cover $100,000 of the cost.
It has the president of the Marysville Education Association 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 don’t have any other choice,” Roberts said. “We don’t have any other choice but to weather this financial storm.”
School officials would not comment on this on camera. They have appealed the district’s termination. As it stands now, it is to take effect in August.
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