School Board and Swinomish Senate to meet

The La Conner School Board and Swinomish Indian Senate will hold a joint meeting this Thursday to discuss tribal sovereignty curriculum.

By law, since a quorum of school board members will be present, the meeting will be open to the public. It will be held at 5 p.m. in the Swinomish Senate Chambers, on Moorage Way across the street from the Village Chevron station on the reservation.

Tribal sovereignty curriculum is a state recommended program, approved by Washington state tribes, to provide instruction in Native American history and culture in grades three through 12.

La Conner Superintendent Tim Bruce said the state curriculum is part of regular classes in the elementary grades and part of the social studies classes in middle and high school in the local school district.

“It’s a good curriculum,” Bruce said. He said the information is presented in a way that is much more interesting than the old social studies lessons it replaces.

He said he believes Thursday’s meeting will deal with the tribe’s desire to add more information that is specific to the local Swinomish culture.

In a letter to Swinomish Indian Tribal Community Chairman Brian Cladoosby, Bruce wrote that the district needs the tribe’s “help and expertise to improve on the foundation given to us by the state by bringing the Swinomish voice fully into the curriculum.”

Swinomish has offered to contribute $400,000 to the school district this year, which would make up for just over half the amount the district lost in property tax revenue when 931 homes in Shelter Bay and the Pull & Be Damned Road neighborhood were removed from the county tax rolls this year.

A federal court ruling holds that all buildings on land that is held in trust by the government for an Indian tribe is tax exempt, regardless of who owns the structures. Most of the Shelter Bay gated community and many homes on Pull & Be Damned Road were developed on leased tribal land. Until this year, homeowners had been assessed personal property tax on the value of their structures to pay for public services, including the schools.

Presently La Conner School District has an enrollment of about 600 students. Of those students, about two-thirds, 395, live on tribal trust land that no longer generates tax money for the district. This year, there are about 165 students who are registered tribal members residing on Swinomish land, Bruce said.

This week the remaining taxpayers in the school district will receive their property tax bills reflecting the amount of taxes shifted to them from the now tax-exempt parcels. Some homeowners will have tax bills more than 20 percent higher than last year.

Swinomish has said it plans to assess its own tax on homeowners on leased reservation land to help fund essential tribal government services. Although the tribe has said it will contribute $400,000 from the taxes it intends to collect to the schools this year, there has been no plan announced to fund the schools in future years.