Three hours into the Snoqualmie Valley School Board meeting, Jan. 26, acting board president Scott Hodgins decided it was time to speed things up.
“Get on to the bad news,” he suggested to Business Services Director Ryan Stokes, as he reviewed the district’s finances.
Stokes complied by telling the board and the 30-plus audience members still in the room that the district is facing an $800,000 shortfall for this school year, and is planning for about $2 million in cuts from the 2012-13 budget.
The news, following a lengthy discussion on a proposed Kindergarten format change, and another on how the potential transition of Snoqualmie Middle School to a freshman campus will affect middle schoolers, drew little reaction from the worn-out audience.
“So, when Ryan was talking about department heads… looking at how to reduce their budget, you were talking about staff cuts, not necessarily programs or paper … he was basically talking about personnel?” asked teacher Lisa Radmer.
“Yes, that’s where we are,” responded Superintendent Joel Aune. “There are always smaller-type reductions you can make… but we’re beyond that.”
No staff cuts will be made for the current year, Stokes said, because the school has a one-year contract with all staff. However, staff cuts are a real possibility for the 2012-13 school year, depending on the state legislature’s current-session budget decisions.
The current-year shortfall of $800,000 will have to be absorbed by the district, reducing its $3.4 million fund balance. The fund balance took its first such hit the previous year, when the state legislature decided in the spring of 2011 to reduce the district’s current-year funding by more than $300,000.
Stokes said the causes of the current shortfall could mainly be attributed to lower enrollment than budgeted, and the district’s decision to “make whole” the teacher pay that the state reduced funding for by 1.9 percent, among other concessions to the Snoqualmie Valley Education Association during last summer’s contract negotiations.
Enrollment for the year is averaging about 75 full-time-equivalent students less than the district had budgeted. Since the state funds schools on average FTE enrollment (around $6,000 per FTE) the loss is about half of the shortfall.
The $2 million in planned cuts for 2012-13 could also be affected by enrollment.
“If there’s some enrollment growth, that’s less that we have to cut,” Stokes said.
More than half of the $2 million figure is earmarked for potential cuts in state funding, added Stokes, who said the Governor’s proposal to increase class sizes (by reducing teacher funding) would cost Snoqualmie Valley about $1.2 million in the coming year. A lot will depend on the legislature.
“It could very easily be only $500,000 by the time we’re done,” Stokes said.
However, while the district waits for legislative action, it is also required to send notifications by May 15 to any teachers who might be laid off for the coming year. This requirement is one of several that the district must comply with before fully knowing the impact of state funding cuts.
Stokes said staff have been working on the 2012-13 budget since November, and hope to present it to the school board for adoption in July. By law, the district must adopt the next year’s budget before the start of school.
