“If the legislature responded to us like they did Boeing, we’d have $9 billion tomorrow,” he said during a Marysville School District work session Sept. 15.

Lundberg is in Yakima as the district’s legislative representative to the Washington State School District Association. He will help decide what the top issues are for school districts at the next legislative session starting in January.

One of his major goals is to stop making state assessments a graduation requirement.

“It sounds sexy when you look at it,” he said. “But the more you know about it the less sense it makes.”

Passing school bonds by a majority rather than a 60 percent vote also is a priority, as are: fully funding basic education, more professional development hours, a cap on the number of charter schools and maintaining local control.

The state directors association has 98 standing issues that have been prioritized.

At the school board meeting, Lundberg said the state Supreme Court ruling regarding the McCleary School District settled a lot.

“The state is in contempt for not meeting the mandate of fully funding education,” Lundberg said. “With money a lot of things are possible.”

Also Monday, enrollment figures show Marysville is down 84 students from a year ago. Lakewood is down 42 and Arlington up one. Finance director Jim Baker said Section 8 housing built in other communities has led to 118 fewer kindergarteners here. “We did not see that coming,” he said. He added that the district has a history of late arrivals so he hopes to have about 150 more students by Oct. 1.

Baker also talked about new valuation numbers from the Snohomish County assessor. He said the numbers are up 10 percent, to $6.1 billion. Taxpayers will pay less per $1,000 valuation than expected – $4.29 instead of $4.35.

Baker said that happened even though $111.5 million is no longer on the tax rolls from improvements made on tribal lands. A court made that ruling last summer. The district will be able to recover that $1.4 million loss in a refund levy in 2015 from the rest of the district’s taxpayers.

Baker also discussed collection of Growth Management Act mitigation fees from new construction. That is part of the six-year Capital Facilities Plan that is updated every two years. Snohomish County and the city of Marysville collect the tax and give builders a 50 percent discount from what the school district could collect to encourage construction. The district will now get $1,817 for each new single-family home and $1,108 for each new multi-family home. The formula comes from the governments’ understanding that each new home brings an average of half a student to the district. All new growth doesn’t bring “our customers,” Baker said.

In the work session, Baker also talked about the need for the district to hire a collection agency. People owe the district money for all types of services. Currently they are sent letters to try to get them to pay. They are even given the option for payment plans. Baker said the district would pay a 20 percent fee to a collection agency but something is better than nothing. If they still don’t pay, the debt could be written off.

In other news:

•Superintendent Becky Berg talked about going to Spokane for a meeting about charter schools. She said the main advantage of them is they offer a portfolio of choices. But she said this school district already does that. “We have enough individual choices,” she said. Lundberg added: “We did this already. We offer options. This is for others who don’t have a vision on how to do it.” He made it clear he’s not fan of charter schools. “I hope we don’t lose control of schools to businesses,” he said. Berg said the district needs to offer as much as it can. “If we don’t do the work, others will,” she said.

• Berg gave a plaque to Dell Deierling and Amy Howell of the Marysville Community Food Bank for “what they do for families and kids.” They were honored for their Food for Thought Backpack Program, which has grown from 20 to more than 300. “No one goes hungry in our community” is the vision, Deierling said. “Who are we missing?”

• The Marysville Rotary Education Foundation will sell raffle tickets at upcoming Marysville-Pilchuck and Marysville Getchell high school football games. Proceeds will go to education. Tom Albright and Chris Nation abstained from voting as they are members. At the earlier work session, Lundberg was worried it would set a precedent. But because it was done before and funds go to education it passed anyway.

• Board members paid tribute to Mary Jo Miller, who is leaving Mountain View after 28 years. “There’s still a lot of fire in the tank,” Lundgren said. “If we could bottle that we could solve a lot of problems,” Albright added.

• Mariana Maksimos said of her own kids that they were happy to go back so school. “They want to be something when they grow up,” she said. She added that she is proud of the district. “There is mercy. There is caring. We want to be there for everyone who needs help.”

• The Tulalip Tribes donated more than $114,000 to the district, the quarterly payment for operating the casino.