Q: Word is going around that there's going to be a "VIS Committee" constituted to support the district's Bond & Levy Committee and do the campaigning. How does my PTA get involved, or how do I get involved? What does "VIS" stand for, anyway?
A: The school district has the ability to tax the property owners within the school district boundaries. There are Levies and Bonds. A Bond is a like a long term mortgage and it's used when we need large sums of money to buy land or build/rebuild schools. Levies are usually for 1 to 4 years and could be a Maintenance & Operations Levy, Transportation Levy, or Capital Levy.
The Maintenance & Operations levy is the one that is capped at 24.97% of our general fund. It is a 4 year levy and it absolutely critical to our school district. The Transportation Levy is so that we can buy buses and the Capital Levy is about technology and critical repairs for our schools.
Right now the school district is preparing to form the Bond and Levy committee. There will be among other people a parent from every school that is chosen by the school site council. For any parent that is interested in being on the committee they should get an application from their school office and then submit it.
Once the committee is formed it will meet in the March - May time frame and then make a recommendation to the superintendent. Then a final decision on what the package will look like will be made in the May - June time frame.
The election is going to be in February 2010. Now by law the school district can only put the bond and/or levies before the voters. The school district cannot campaign for a YES vote. This is where VIS comes in. VIS stands for Volunteers for Issaquah Schools. VIS does the work to get the YES vote to turn out and pass the bond and/or levies. To be clear VIS is separate from the school district and separate from the PTSA however there will be a liaison from VIS to the PTSA Council and then a VIS liaison between the PTSA Council and every local unit PTSA. So for example next year IVE would need a VIS Liaison that would get information from the Council VIS person. Much like I am the Council Legislation Chair and I spread information to each Local Unit Legislation Chair (you).
The VIS/PTSA Liaison would inform the PTSA membership on what is in the Bond/Levy (or bring in speakers to do the details), ask their PTSA for an endorsement, publicize any endorsement, submit newsletter articles, help prepare a postcard to all members asking for a YES vote (VIS does the wording & printing for the postcard), get people to make the "Get Out the Vote" calls, and get people to stand on street corners for the "Honk & Wave" (wave signs that say vote YES). All of this would be explained in detail to the VIS/PTSA Liaison but I just wanted to give you an idea of the job.
Some times the school representative on the school district Bond/Levy committee becomes the VIS PTSA liaison but certainly not always. One advantage to this situation is that this person would have first hand knowledge of why the Bond/Levy package looks the way it does. Lastly know that VIS needs money to run a campaign and that VIS asks for $1000 from each PTSA during a campaign year and $200 during a non-campaign year. Now not all PTSAs may be able to donate this much money but whatever can be donated is greatly appreciated and absolutely needed!
I hope this helps to answer your questions, and if not, by all means ask me the question again!
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