LEGISLATIVE

Encourages involvement in legislative issues that affect the health, education and well being of our children. Spends a weekend in October at the WSPTSA Legislative Session in Ellensburg. Collaborates with WSPTSA Legislative Leadership and other school representatives via a very active centralized statewide email system. Reporting of key issues and events to Bennett PTSA Officers and at general meetings throughout the year.
 

I-728 ALLOCATION FOR 2003-04

Initiative 728, also known as the class size reduction initiative, generated an additional $3.3 million dollars in revenue for the Bellevue School District during the 2003-04 school year. The District used these funds to continue support elementary school class size reduction. They provided 30 additional teachers distributed across our sixteen elementary schools and 4.8 elementary specialists to provide art, music and physical education instruction to these additional classes. Before I-728, the district-wide average K-5 elementary class size was 25 students. In 2003-04 the district-wide K-5 average class size was 21 students.

In addition to teachers and specialist for class size reduction, I-728 funds were used to support three of the supplemental days for certificated staff at all educational levels. These supplemental days are used by staff to participate in staff development related to use of new curriculum and assessments, engage in Lesson Study for the improvement of instruction, hold parent-teacher conferences and complete activities necessary to obtain National Board Certification.

With an increase of approximately $400,000 in these funds for the 2004-05 school year, the District intends to increase the number of elementary teachers to 34 to make up for the 4 elementary teachers lost by the District though legislative reductions in funding. We will continue the same support for professional development.
 

Voters Registration

The elections department at the Secretary of State's office is overwhelmed with requests for voter registration and absentee ballots. It is taking up to 8 weeks to process these applications. Normally, a person can register to vote 30 days prior to the election, but that may not be the case this election cycle.

You will need to register to vote right away to ensure you will be eligible to vote in the primary. And, if you want to change to voting absentee you need to get the request in right away.

To learn more about voter registration and PTA voter registration drives visit:
http://www.wastatepta.org/programs/Legislation/VoterRegInfo.pdf
 
For general voter and election information visit the elections section of the Secretary of State's website:
http://www.secstate.wa.gov/elections/