Having advertised possible deficits of up to $8.5 million in coming years, the Northshore School District wanted to know what its employees, administrators and the community at-large believe should be the priorities if and when the budget axe needs to fall.
By a decent margin, respondents to an online survey rated keeping limits on class size as the main issue on their minds. Maintaining the district’s instructional materials came in second.
District Superintendent Larry Francois said he agreed with those rankings, stating he also would place support of professional development high on his list of priorities.
“The No. 1 indicator of student development is the quality of teachers in the classroom,” Francois said.
Posted on the district’s Web site through early February, the survey was offered to three distinct groups: principals and other administrators, so-called key communicators and the general public.
Of that last group, district Director of Communications Susan Stoltzfus said some 3,300 people responded. She added that the district’s “prime communicators” consist of approximately 420 people, mostly parents and PTA leaders. They are persons, Stoltzfus added, who have asked to be kept in the loop as to what is going on in the district.
The key question asked of all those who took the survey was to rate the importance of eight district services or programs on a scale of one to 10.
For all respondents, controlling class size earned an average ranking of 7.45. Maintenance of instructional materials came in a fairly distant second with an overall ranking of 6.27.
Behind class size and instructional materials, other priorities, in the order of their ranking were: highly capable programs, support for struggling learners, extracurricular activities, professional development, instructional technology and choice programs.
Francois said he was encouraged by the fact that the three groups who took the survey seemed to agree on the top priorities. Both he and Stoltzfus said the survey would be used by administrators and the school board in planning future district budgets. Still, Francois quickly stated the survey was not a perfect instrument, that some of the categories probably were too broad, including too many programs under one heading. When the time comes to make funding choices, he added the eight categories as presented shouldn’t be taken as all-or-nothing propositions.
“Overall, it is very good data,” said Stoltzfus, who presented the results to board members. “I feel like it does give us a good sense of direction.”
Survey respondents were given the opportunity to voice specific concerns in addition to completing the rankings. The district removed the names of the respondents before releasing the comments.
“I am rather dumbfounded,” wrote one respondent, “that closing schools is not on the list. The first priority should be to close small elementary schools.”
“No mention of trimming administrative expenses, including staff, at district offices,” complained another writer. “That’s where you need to begin cuts.”
“Do not increase sports participation fees,” said another commentator, who claimed Northshore already has some of the highest fees among local districts.
Some comments took the state to task for any local funding issues.
“When will government get its priorities straight?” one writer asked.
Francois said that in terms of budget choices, the district has to await final funding decisions in Olympia, decisions that should arrive in March or early April. Francois isn’t optimistic about what will emerge from the state capitol.
“The news out there is pretty frightening,” he said.
Including all written comments, the full results of the survey are available on the district Web site.
As the budgeting process moves forward, the district has set up three public budget workshops. Each will run from 7-9 p.m. and the first is slated for March 3 at Woodinville High. Other workshops will be held March 10 at Bothell High and on March 17 at Inglemoor High.