District contributes to lawsuit against state

The Grand Coulee Dam School District will help fund a lawsuit against the state intended to have a far-reaching effect on funding school facilities and programs.

School board members voted unanimously Monday to chip in $5,000 to to the Wahkiakum School District in the endeavor.

Wahkiakum Superintendent Brent Freeman attended the meeting and filled the board in on progress on the suit, which will be heard by the state Supreme Court.

The suit claims the state is not meeting its constitutional duty "to make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders."

That doesn't happen when some districts are so much poorer than others.

They lost in a lower court, but the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case because of its large implications that would once again force a drastic change in the way education is funded across 295 school districts in the state.

Those districts don't have equal facilities, the crux of the case.

GCD Superintendent Paul Turner said a win for Wahkiakum in the case would definitely benefit this district. Director Butch Stanger agreed.

They had both heard a presentation on the case at a school administrator's conference recently.

"Everything about that case resembles us," Stanger said.

Freeman said his district is "upside down" financially in the effort and needs help paying a $600-an-hour lawyer.

Freeman said they hope to be able to get superintendents a seat at the table when a solution is found, something that didn't happen when a case known as McCleary was decided and changed state education financing a few years ago.