LA CONNER — State legislators and school district officials came away from a joint meeting with a wary optimism that the state could make headway toward fully funding education in years to come.

School officials from 35 districts in northwest Washington met with more than a dozen legislators Tuesday in the cavernous gymnasium of the Swinomish Community Center to talk about school finance and the effects of legislative decisions on school districts.

District officials acknowledged the disconnect between Olympia and home districts, while legislators tried to educate the educators about the process in Olympia.

Superintendent Jerry Jenkins of the Northwest Educational Service District said tensions are so high across the state that collective bargaining agreements between districts and teachers’ unions are breaking down. Students and parents are frustrated, too, because they have more fees to pay than in the past to make up for local budget shortfalls, Jenkins said.

“I have been in the Washington state education system for 30 years, and I have never seen budgets as strapped as they are now,” Jenkins said.

Last year alone, the 35 districts that make up the educational service district had to cut about $30 million from their budgets to make up the difference between what the Legislature provided and what the school districts needed to operate, Jenkins said.

Districts asked legislators Tuesday to support fully funding public education and to realize the impacts that decisions in Olympia have on collective bargaining at the local level.

Each district representative had five minutes to tell their legislator how state cutbacks and unfunded mandates — federal and state — have hurt their district. Districts from Bellingham to Edmonds shared their experience with ever-tightening budgets and talked about possible solutions.

The discussion became heated at times. Many officials, such as Bellingham District School Board member Steve Schoenfeld, asked why all of the districts couldn’t have their employees belong to the state worker health care pool. Ferndale School District has 12 different health care plans for its employees, one official said.

Schoenfeld said having school district employees under the state plan could save districts $100 million per year.

“It seems like a no-brainer to me,” Schoenfeld said. “There’s no diminution of benefits. I hear it’s because the (state teachers’ union) won’t let us. ... That’s bull.... It’s not in the best interest of our students.”

Many districts also expressed concern about negotiating with their teachers’ unions for a fall 2009 contract renewal.

“We have a union that looks south and also north toward Bellingham,” said Mount Vernon School District Superintendent Carl Bruner. “Those examples are tough for us to match.”

Bruner said that in the past the district had to agree to compensation levels that have been hard to sustain.

But, he said later, teachers are not the cause of the problem.

“Their frustration and aggressiveness (at the bargaining table) is symptomatic of funding shortfalls,” Bruner said.

The coming year will be trying, said Superintendent Laurel Browning of the Burlington-Edison School District.

“We want rigorous classes, but if I have to decide between (Advanced Placement) and remediation classes,” Browning paused and held her hands out to the side, palms up, as if weighing the two options, “I have to pick the remediation classes to meet state standard.”

After district officials talked with their representatives, the lawmakers also told districts how they could improve their lobbying efforts at the statehouse.

State Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, encouraged districts to lobby the Legislature and the State Board of Education, or to testify in Olympia when education issues come to the floor.

“We also need you guys to help us,” Haugen said. “You need to become watchdogs. I need to know why I need to vote no.”

State Rep. Norma Smith, R-Clinton, said districts could also try to get obsolete state laws off the books to save money.

“If (a law) is still there and we are doing it, why are we doing it?” she said. “If we could have help from school boards, where are the (state laws) that are generating these costs?”

Anacortes School Board members, who organized the meeting, said they plan to follow up with lawmakers and school districts before the legislative session begins in January.