No one officially said so, but the good news probably is that Northshore School District officials avoided any teacher or staff layoffs as they gave their preliminary approval May 12 to a 2009-2010 budget that included roughly $6.4 million in cuts.
As proposed by district administrators, the spending plan included the reduction of 18 elementary- and 12 secondary-school teachers. At a previous meeting, the school board of directors adopted a resolution authorizing up to 10 layoffs.
But school Superintendent Larry Francois said officials were hopeful they could meet the targeted staff reductions through normal attrition and transfers. That is apparently exactly what ultimately happened. But even with the avoidance of layoffs, as he has in the past, Francois said he wasn’t happy with the cuts and reductions he feels the district had no choice but to make.
“There’s not much to like in the package at all, but it was, unfortunately, necessary,” he said.
According to Francois and others, the budget adopted by the board was essentially the spending plan previously laid out and announced by district administrators with one notable exception.
According to district Public Information Office Susan Stolztfus, a task force appointed by the school board was able to come up with a plan to save some junior-high programs from the budget chopping block.
Francois had proposed eliminating all junior-high athletic programs. Instead, Stolztfus said only some sports offerings will disappear. Those programs include baseball and softball, the reasoning being, Stolztfus added, that students have plenty of opportunities to take part in those sports elsewhere.
Francois said the ultimate goal is to make junior-high sports cost neutral — that is, self-supporting — in the next two years. According to Francois and the task force, the way to achieve that goal is to eliminate some further programs next year, as well as reduce the number of coaches and increase participation fees.
As previously advertised, the biggest target in the current budget is general program and staff reductions. The administration plan adopted by the board lops some $5 million in spending from that broad category. Those reductions affect everything from the number of class periods for secondary-school students to mentoring programs. The district’s Camp Casey will be eliminated after this school year. The cuts also will affect various programs for struggling learners.
Besides increased fees for junior-high sports, other extracurricular fees likely are going up, as well. The price tag for summer school also is on the rise.
In other areas, Francois’ budget cut central office spending by $240,000, reduced support services by $489,000. Revenue enhancements should amount to about $1.1 million, mostly coming from a one-time transfer of dollars consisting of interest collected on capital improvement monies. Officials also plan to dip into Northshore’s fund balance.
Francois previously predicted the district will need to make additional cuts in the 2010-2011 school year, blasting the state for millions in reductions in Issue 278 funding, which is supposed to go toward reducing class sizes throughout Washington.
District officials said I-278 dollars will drop from $458 per student this year to $131 next year and will be reduced further to $99 per student the following school year.
