The school district will be laying off a handful of teachers on Wednesday, May 13, as part of nearly $4.1 million in cuts from its general operating budget. The cuts will increase class sizes despite the district’s effort to keep the cuts as far away from classrooms as possible.
The district needs to eliminate the equivalent of 17 to 19 full-time teaching positions, according to Ron Ellis, the district’s business manager. The district has 246 certificated teachers.
Most of the positions are being eliminated by teachers retiring or taking leaves of absence. The district might have to lay off as few as six teachers, according to Art Galloway, president of the Snoqualmie Educators Association, the teachers’ union.
Layoffs will be made according to language in the district’s collective bargaining agreement with the union.
“The reductions will not be made so that a subject could not be offered,” said Carolyn Malcolm, the district’s spokeswoman.
Some of those teachers might be re-hired if the district gets more money than it has budgeted to receive from the state and federal stimulus programs. The district won’t know exactly how much money it is receiving until the state budget is finalized. However, the district has to tell teachers if they are being laid off by May 15, as set in the collective bargaining agreement.
“It’s too early to say what we expect” from the state, said Ellis.
Reductions in jobs or changes to how they are paid for would shave $2.4 million from the district’s overall expenses. District administrators said they wanted to avoid cutting jobs, but had to, as employee wages and benefits make up 82 percent of the district’s general budget.
School districts across the state are dealing with between $800 million and $1 billion in cuts for public schools after the recent legislative session. The bulk of the money came from Initiative 728, which was passed by voters in 2000 to reduce class sizes. The legislature’s budget reduces I-728 by 75 percent, or $680 million. The budget will not be finalized until later this summer.
Class sizes are expected to rise by around one student per class, but the change will vary between elementary schools, middle schools and high schools, according to Ellis.
Several school districts in the state are having to lay off many more teachers. Issaquah School District sent out notices to 158 of its 1,097 certificated teachers. Federal Way Public Schools expects to lay off the equivalent of 65 full-time teachers.
Statewide Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn estimates about 3,000 to 5,000 layoffs; however some of those staff will be re-hired.
The budget crisis is the result of a “perfect storm” of increased state and federal requirements, increased student needs, increased community expectations, increased costs and decreasing local, state and federal revenue, according to Joel Aune, the district superintendent.
Unfunded and partially funded state and federal mandates cost the district up to $5 million each year. For example, the state only pays for five periods a day and does not pay for extracurricular activities. The district also has to pay for the ongoing operating costs of Twin Falls Middle School, which enrollment growth had been expected to pay for. Additionally, the cost of energy, food, transportation and insurance, among other expenditures, have increased in recent years.
