Sumner school cuts, fees due

Sumner schools will start charging students to play sports to help defray rising costs for athletics staff and transportation.

Sumner School District administrators estimate the pay-to-play fees will raise $50,000 to $55,000 to help balance the upcoming school year’s budget.

They’re preparing an operating budget of $76.2 million for the 2008-09 school year, nearly $3 million more than the past year.

Yet while they face the same challenges as in other districts with soaring fuel expenses and employee salary and benefits, Sumner’s budget picture isn’t quite as grim.

The district must close a $2.5 million shortfall between revenues and expenses, but won’t need to lay off staff, and will lose only about 11 teaching positions.

And for the first time in several years, the district won’t need to dip into its reserves to balance the budget, said district finance director Sandee Chittenden.

As in other districts, a key challenge is accommodating rising employee salary and benefits. Certificated staff, including teachers, will receive a 5.1 percent salary increase; classified staff will receive a 4.4 percent raise. Benefit costs for all employees will increase by 3.5 percent.

Though the Legislature approved the increases, it pays for only the number of staff supported through the state funding formula. Local levy dollars pick up the remaining increases, amounting to $6 million in Sumner – nearly half of the district’s annual levy collection of $13.7 million, said district spokeswoman Ann Cook.

Declining enrollment is contributing to the shortfall because state funding is based on the number of students. The district expects to enroll 7,964 students in the fall, 221 fewer than a year earlier.

The number of incoming students isn’t matching the large bubble of secondary students leaving the system, said Cook. Another factor: Growth is slower than projected in the easternmost part of the district. The new Cascadia and Falling Waters developments are being built more slowly than anticipated.

To accommodate the slower than expected growth, the district’s ninth elementary school will open in the fall of 2009 instead of this fall, as originally planned, Cook said.

The slowdown, however, is expected to be temporary. The district’s demographer projects that enrollment will sharply increase in 2013, Cook said.

The budget also incorporates new efficiencies that administrators believe will result in savings. For instance, though the district is reducing individual school budgets, which cover photocopying, some of the impact should be absorbed through a new, less costly copy machine contract.

In all, the district’s work force will total about 1,000 employees, including 425 teachers.

Other highlights of the 2008-09 budget include:

 • Reducing the discretionary funding that each school receives to spend as it sees fit on supplies, printing, teacher workshops and other expenses. Savings: $70,000.

 • Reducing about 11 teaching positions, through attrition, because of the enrollment decline, and an assistant superintendent position. Savings: $1 million.

 • Having part-time kindergartners alternate between two and three full days every other week, instead of 21/2 days each week. This would allow the district to eliminate a midday bus run once a week. Savings: $50,000.

 • Adding $150,000 to cover fuel increases in the transportation budget, which will total nearly $3.3 million.

 • Instituting a pay-to-play fee for each sport of $10 for elementary school, $15 for middle school and $25 for high school athletes. The fee will be waived or reduced for students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. New revenue: up to $55,000.

Debby Abe: 253-597-8694

WHAT’S NEXT

The Sumner School Board is scheduled to adopt its 2008-09 school year budget at its regular meeting at 6 p.m. Aug. 13 in the district administration building, 1202 Wood Ave., Sumner. To see the budget, go to www.sumner.wednet.edu.