Three Jefferson County school districts will struggle to pay their bills in July if the state Legislature fails to pass a budget, according to state officials, and local district officials agreed last week that frustration is mounting.
“Olympia doesn’t seem to be in touch with what is happening at the districts,” Quilcene Superintendent Wally Lis said.
Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction officials also have expressed dismay over the effect the budget impasse has on school districts.
“OSPI projects, based on the historical fund balance of school districts’ general funds, 115 districts will not be able to meet their financial obligations — including meeting payroll and making utility payments if they do not receive their July apportionment payment (which is for enrollment) from the state,” said State Superintendent Randy Dorn in a June 7 open letter to state legislators.
The state listed three of the four Jefferson County school districts among those 115 school districts.
They are Port Townsend, Quilcene and Chimacum.
While superintendents in Port Townsend and Quilcene were available to discuss their plans, Chimacum School District officials could not be reached for comment at the end of last week.
Lawmakers have been working on a budget solution since the beginning of the year, looking to mend a roughly $1 billion budget shortfall for the two-year cycle that ends in the middle of 2015.
They’ve also been looking to add another $1 billion to the state’s education system in response to an order from the state Supreme Court.
Until the state Legislature passes a budget, public school districts cannot receive state funds for fiscal year 2013-2014 — payments that fund many of their bills through the summer.
Budget deadlock
Political leaders were seeking to finalize a spending plan this weekend, just days before the new budget cycle begins July 1.
If there’s no budget deal reached by the end of the month, state leaders expect they would have to shut down much of state government.
Meanwhile, school district officials are scrambling to figure out where their budgets stand.
Their fiscal year ends next Sunday, June 30, and districts cannot complete their budgets by state-mandated deadlines because they don’t know how much money the districts will get from the state.
In 2010-2011, the state provided 64.4 percent of public school districts’ budgets, according to a 2012 Citizen’s Guide to K-12 Finance, prepared by state Senate Ways and Means and Early Learning and K-12 committees with the help of the Legislative Evaluation and Accountability Program Committee.
The report said local taxes provided 18.4 percent, federal money equaled 12.8 percent, and other revenue and reserves was 4.2 percent.
Quilcene
Quilcene School District has frozen all spending, including the ordering of classroom instructional material and essential summer maintenance, and will barely be able to meet July payroll by using the district’s reserve funds, Lis said.
District reserve funds are supposed to be there for emergencies, such as a broken furnace or replacing roof damage after a storm, he said.
Lis said using those funds to cover payroll opens the district to the risk of not being able to pay for emergency repairs.
Brinnon
Lis, who serves as superintendent for Quilcene three days a week and Brinnon School District two days a week as a cost-saving measure for both school districts, said Brinnon is in slightly better shape.
Brinnon will be able to finish classroom supply orders, which are smaller than Quilcene’s, and may be able to hold on for an additional month, Lis said.
“In Brinnon, we can stretch it out a little bit longer. The orders are not as big, but it is on the same path, just one step behind,” he said.
Port Townsend
The Port Townsend School District, the largest of the four districts in the county, has few options going into a new fiscal year without the state’s monthly apportionment payment.
The best-case scenario would be for the state to pass a budget in the next few days, but if that doesn’t happen, the district is planning to borrow from the capital projects fund to cover July expenses, said Port Townsend Superintendent David Engle.
“If it goes beyond a month, we’re all in trouble,” Engle said.
Port Townsend has one of the region’s smaller reserve balances, 3 percent of the annual budget, he said.
The School Board is trying to increase that amount to 4 percent for the 2013-2014 school year, but Engle noted that its ability to do so depends entirely on the decisions made by the state Legislature this summer.
Like Quilcene and Chimacum, the small Class II district is required to submit its budget by July 10.
Clallam County
Most Clallam County schools will be able to pay employees, at least in July.
But Port Angeles School Board members said they were concerned that the district was budgeting blind, and board President Lonnie Linn called the state budget impasse a “big cloud” on the district’s horizon.
Diana Reaume, superintendent of the Quillayute Valley School District, said the Forks district is “really scrambling to figure out, if there is a shutdown at the state level, what we will do.”
The Sequim School District is creating two budgets, one using the state Senate’s proposed budget and another with the state House budget, said Brian Lewis, business manager, adding that the district is “slowing purchases” that aren’t directly health- and safety-related until after the June 30 legislative budget deadline.
Both Cape Flattery School District, serving Neah Bay and Clallam Bay, and Crescent School District in Joyce can cover payroll through August, officials said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
