CHIMACUM — Though the namesake of the state Supreme Court’s McCleary decision often tries to keep a low profile, the local resident is back in the budgeting controversy between the court and state Legislature caused by the ruling.
On occasion, Stephanie McCleary, an administrative secretary for Chimacum School District Superintendent Rich Stewart, emerges in support of the ruling that the state is obligated to fully fund public schooling.
“It goes in waves,” McCleary said.
“It’s present in my life for a short while, and then it’s gone and I’m in the background for several years, and then it comes back.”
McCleary is currently in active mode, having attended last week’s Supreme Court hearing called to determine whether the Legislature should be held in contempt for not acting in its past session.
The 2012 McCleary, et al. v. State of Washington ruling said lawmakers are not meeting their constitutional responsibility to fully pay for basic education, and they are relying too much on local tax-levy dollars to balance the education budget.
The decision upheld the efforts of a coalition that won a lawsuit on school funding in King County Superior Court in February 2010.
The court commended the Legislature for passing some reforms in the K-12 system and for starting to pay for them, but the decision orders the Legislature to finish paying for the reforms, which may add more than $4 billion to the state’s biennial budget, according to some government estimates.
The Legislature was given until the 2017-18 school year to fix the problem.
A decision is expected as to whether the court will attempt to force the Legislature to come up with a plan by the end of 2014, which would require a special session, or to wait until after the 2015 session to determine whether the requirement has been met.
In between, there are other options, including one suggested by Justice Charles Johnson which would cancel all tax exemptions, fund the schools and then selectively re-instate those exemptions. This strategy was endorsed by Gov. Jay Inslee on Thursday, who said that closing tax exemptions will have to be part of the equation to put more money into Washington state’s education system.
“She’s very brave,” attorney Thomas Ahearne said of McCleary.
Ahearne has worked on the case where McCleary was the lead petitioner since the beginning and has become a family friend.
“When she first started doing this, she was terrified of speaking in public because she’s a shy person.
“But her conscience overrode her fear, and she found her voice.”
McCleary, 49, was born and raised in Sequim and worked for the Port Angeles School District for 11 years prior to taking the Chimacum job 7 years ago.
Her husband, Matt, is a wine salesman, and the couple have two children, Kelsey, 20, and Carter, 15.
“I had no idea that I would have to testify,” McCleary said.
“It was pretty intense. I went through a six-hour deposition where everyone was looking at me, but I did baby steps through the whole thing.”
When the case began, her children were in elementary and middle school, and McCleary joined the case to directly help them, but they probably won’t see a direct benefit since the mandate is to provide funding by 2017.
“I feel like we are getting closer, but I’m not sure what it means at this point,” McCleary said.
“I’m not sure that it makes sense to bring them back into session to deal with this, but I’m also not sure that anything will be different in another year.
“I think they need to do something,”
Ahearne said he could not predict what the court would do and how long it will take them to make a decision, but feels the court is somewhat taken aback by the Legislature’s failure to act for two years after the ruling.
At last week’s hearing, Deputy Solicitor General Alan D. Copsey, speaking for the state, said no action was taken in 2014 as it is a shorter session and that the legislature would have the opportunity to address the matter in the 2015 session, which is budget oriented.
After this argument, Justice Debra Stephens asked why the legislature did not act in the 2013 budgeting session, which followed the 2012 ruling.
“A lot of times, the justices ask questions that will support the conclusions they’ve already reached, but I can’t really tell what they are going to decide here,” Ahearne said.
McCleary tries to maintain a low profile and doesn’t let people know she is “that McCleary,” preferring to let them think that it originated in the town of the same name.
“I can be out somewhere and hear the words ‘McCleary decision,’ and I don’t feel that it’s connected to me,” she said.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
Associated Press material was used in this report.