ESD Holiday Giving
It’s November already! As we near the holiday season, we recognize the generosity of our ESD employees when it comes to giving. The annual ESD “Giving Tree” will be going up prior to the Thanksgiving break. Tags on tree will be for the families we serve in our programs.

We will also erect our HUGS tree (hats, underwear, gloves and socks) in the main lobby to collect for the local Winter Hospitality Overflow organization.

Legislative Priorities
We are also gearing up for another action-packed legislative session. With the state’s new school funding formula leaving so many districts in a budget quandary, our legislators have lots of work to do. We have created an informational piece about the priorities from our region. We are specifically asking the legislature to:

  1. Fully fund special education. (The actual cost of providing special education services greatly exceeds the state funding allocation.)
  2. Fully fund the SEBB. (This new legislation requires all education entities to join a single medical benefits pool. Costs are not fully funded by the state. ESDs receive no funding to support this mandate.)
  3. Address inequities for small schools. (Small schools are among the districts most negatively impacted under the new funding model. We are asking for changes to the formulas that drive funding to small schools.)

JUST ASK! What else do you want to know? Please be sure to ask questions when something is unclear or if you have a burning question about anything ESD-related!