Schools squeak by, but future budgets look disastrous
DEBBIE CAFAZZO; Staff writer
It’s early in the budget season for South Sound school districts, but most already anticipate state funding cuts that will have an impact on the 2010-11 school year.
The Sumner School District has issued layoff notices to 15 teachers – the first time in at least three decades that the Sumner-Bonney Lake area district has taken such a measure.
The Fife School Board has authorized up to 15 teacher and five support staff layoffs, but district administrators say they won’t know until this week how many are necessary.
School districts across the state have until May 15 to notify teachers that they might lose their job next school year. Most districts will adopt their final budgets over the summer.
Revenue losses at the state level resulted in more than $153 million in cuts to K-12 education. Local districts were hit hardest by cuts to funds that helped provide extra teachers and services. Districts also lost state money for a day of teacher training.
While a few South Sound districts have considered layoffs, Tacoma and most others are turning to their savings accounts or to what could be the final year of federal stimulus money.
But they warn their employees and communities that without an improvement in the economy and restoration of state dollars, worse times are ahead.
“What we are trying to do is get ourselves into the future hoping for a slow economic recovery,” said Ray Miller, business and operations administrator for the Clover Park School District in Lakewood.
Clover Park doesn’t plan to lay off teachers next year, but it is using $1 million from its savings account to keep the 2010-11 budget balanced. That’s the equivalent of between 15 and 17 teachers, Miller said.
Tacoma schools will also avoid teacher layoffs in 2010-11, as the district did this year, according to administrators. They started looking at savings potential as early as fall 2008, in anticipation of state cuts. Superintendent Art Jarvis said he believes the state’s second-largest district can hang on for another year or two. But unless the economy recovers and state funding systems improve, he doesn’t know what will happen in the future.
“We don’t have a good plan to hold out through 2012-13,” he said. “If the system isn’t fixed by that time, we are in trouble.”
LAYOFFS AHEAD
Trouble has already arrived in Sumner, where administrators anticipate state revenue losses of nearly $3 million for the coming school year.
That figure factors in not only the losses that all Washington school districts will be dealt this year, but also lower state funding due to a projected 133-student drop in Sumner enrollment. The district currently enrolls about 8,000 students.
Sumner sent notices of potential layoffs – known as Reduction in Force notices – to 15 teachers. Together with retirements and resignations, the district anticipates it will employ 25 fewer teachers in the fall.
Superintendent Gil Mendoza calls the action unprecedented in his district.
“We knew it was coming,” said Sumner Education Association president Hillery Berteaux. “But that doesn’t make it any easier.”
“Our goal is to absorb as many positions as we can through attrition,” said district spokeswoman Ann Cook.
Currently, the school district employs 501 teachers and administrators with educators’ credentials.
In addition to the RIF notices, Sumner also told teachers with one-year appointments that their contracts are coming to an end. Most of those 17 had been hired as temporary replacements for teachers on leave.
Earlier this year, Sumner announced a change in scheduling for its two high schools that shortened class periods and required fewer teachers. The district decided to extend the same change to its three middle schools.
Reducing teaching staff will save Sumner more than $800,000 in salary costs. Savings on benefits haven’t yet been calculated.
The district is looking at other ways to save money and generate cash, including cutting the equivalent of 4.5 administrative jobs, multi-day furloughs for administrators and support staff, raising school lunch prices by 25 cents, raising athletic participation fees by $25 for high school students and by $10 for middle school students, and continuing a moratorium on out-of-state staff travel.
The district has also looked at cutting some sports and other extracurricular programs or combining them between schools. It already started down that path this year, when the high school water polo and dance teams were joined into one district team for each activity.
COUNTING LOSSES
In Fife, the school district is still calculating how many positions will be lost. The district issued about six RIF notices last year.
“We have been cutting (elsewhere) for the past eight years,” said Deputy Superintendent Jeff Short. He said personnel cuts are the only budget-slashing measure that’s left.
While there will be no teacher RIF notices in Puyallup this year, the school district is still feeling the effects of last year’s actions.
The Puyallup School District issued 68 RIF notices to teachers in 2009. A few found jobs elsewhere, and 18 were rehired under continuing teaching contracts. A total of 36 were given one-year teaching contracts to return.
District spokeswoman Karen Hansen said most of those 36 will likely receive another one-year contract for the coming school year, but the jobs may be at different schools than where they taught this year.
Tacoma schools are in the middle of a three-year austerity plan.
It includes weekly reviews of all job openings in the school district. So far, more than 100 jobs remain vacant in the district, at a projected salary savings of more than $4 million, said Chief Financial Officer Ron Hack.
“We have been cutting a lot of discretionary areas, trying to protect the classrooms,” said Jarvis.
The district also benefitted in its 2009-10 budget from an infusion of federal stimulus dollars – nearly $12 million.
But if state officials don’t replace money cut this year, and if more federal stimulus dollars aren’t forthcoming, future budgets a couple of years from now look bleak.
“We will get hammered,” Jarvis said.
FUTURE LOOKS SCARY
Officials in other South Sound districts say they’re happy to be able to hold out for the near term, but they are worried about the future.
Clover Park’s Miller said his district could be helped by a projected increase in student enrollment driven by new housing developments at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
Grant dollars, as well as delayed maintenance and repair work, have also helped the Lakewood district save money.
Federal Way Public Schools also are avoiding teacher RIF notices this year. But the 1,300-strong teaching staff is down by 25 to 30 people due to resignations and retirements, said Superintendent Tom Murphy. Some assistant principals were reassigned to teaching posts, and about 40 teachers were moved to new assignments.
Despite state cuts, Federal Way’s budget will hold steady at about $207 million in the 2010-11 school year, thanks to an infusion of about $3 million in voter-approved local levy money. There’s also about $4 million in federal stimulus dollars in the budget next year.
“If that goes away as it’s supposed to, and the state economy hasn’t recovered, it will be catastrophic for school districts,” Murphy said.
Debbie Cafazzo: 253-597-8635
debbie.cafazzo@thenewstribune.com
SCHOOL DISTRICT CUTS
Here’s a summary in round numbers of some of the major dollar categories lost to school districts as a result of state cuts. They will affect budgets for the 2010-11 school year. The chart shows dollar losses in six South Sound districts.
The biggest hits involved:
• Funding that has allowed districts to reduce class size by hiring more teachers for fourth-graders.
• Money that supported more than the bare minimum number of teachers, allowed school districts to extend the school day and supported other measures to enhance student achievement.
• Funding for a day of teacher training.
Clover Park
Fourth-grade teachers: $500,000
Student achievement: $1.4 million
Teacher training day: $250,000
Federal Way
Fourth-grade teachers: $200,000
Student achievement: $2.7 million
Teacher training day: $500,000
Fife
Fourth-grade teachers: $128,000
Student achievement: $335,000
Teacher training day: $63,000
Puyallup
Fourth-grade teachers: $800,000
Student achievement: $2.7 million
Teacher training day: $450,000
Sumner
Fourth-grade teachers: $206,000
Student achievement: $787,000
Teacher training day: $141,000
Tacoma
Fourth-grade teachers: $1 million
Student achievement: $3.6 million
Teacher training day: $434,000
