CHIMACUM — Chimacum School District, which has been central to the state Supreme Court’s landmark McCleary decision, is feeling budgetary pressures as enrollment declines, the state adjusts how it funds schools and it faces a need to address facilities issues.
Superintendent Rick Thompson said the state’s new approach to funding schools, which distributes funding based on enrollment and puts a cap on district levy collection, has him concerned for the coming years.
The district typically sees about a 2 percent drop in enrollment each year. This year’s drop of about 7 percent has been staggering, Thompson said. He said there were fewer kindergarten students this year than had been anticipated.
The district ended last year with 998 students. As of January, 916 are enrolled this year.
State statistics show there are only 54 kindergarten students in the district. The average students per grade this year is about 75.
The legislation, approved over the summer, was designed as the state’s fix for school funding, but Chimacum School District is still facing budgetary issues.
“At the end of the day we have to balance the budget at make the numbers work,” Thompson said. “Time is going to really tell if it met the intent of what it was designed for in the first place.”
He said residents will see their property taxes supporting the school district decrease, while the state property tax will increase.
Art Clarke, director of finance operations, told the Chimacum School Board on Wednesday night that the district’s voter-approved property tax revenues will decline by about $1 million over two years due to that cap and that now enrollment determines how much support the district gets from the state.
“The enrollment decline is going to be exposed when the levy is decreased,” he said. “[Previously,] the enrollment decline has been hidden financially with the increasing levy.”
The 2019 levy authority will be set in 2019 to $2,500 per student or $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed value, whichever is lower.
“It’s a per-kid levy, so every time we lose a kid we’re going to lose $2,500 per year,” he said.
Stephanie McCleary, director of human resources and the namesake for the McCleary decision, said she is concerned about tough decisions that will need to be made.
“I see this as a very difficult year in making staffing decisions,” she said. “We don’t know what everything is going to look like.
“I See a lot of difficulty for schools in trying to implement the decisions that have been made.”
McCleary, one of the plaintiffs who sued the state in a lawsuit that led to the landmark state Supreme Court decisions that the state must adequately fund basic education, said there are too many unknowns.
The state has been in contempt of court since 2014 for lack of progress on satisfying a 2012 ruling that found that K-12 school funding was not adequate. Washington’s Constitution says that it’s the Legislature’s “paramount duty” to fully fund the education system.
“I doesn’t feel like we’re in a better place,” she said. “The way funding changes are going to be structured, it’s tied directly to enrollment, so we can be double-hit in our budget.”
Salary and benefits are by far the school’s most costly expenditure, Thompson said.
“If we have to make changes in the number of positions, then we would do that publicly,” he said.
Thompson said the district has a principal for about every 200 kids in the district.
“It’s a pretty luxurious formula, which we probably can’t sustain,” he said. “Those are tough decisions for the board.”
Thompson said he is preparing to make a presentation to the School Board about options to address facilities needs. He said there are about six potential options the board could choose.
He said the current six-year capital and technology levy has provided $1.3 million. He said that expires this year.
“We’re going to have to figure out if we we want to replace it, what projects need to be done,” he said.
He said Chimacum Creek Primary School was originally designed to be expanded, but district enrollment began declining about the time the school was built. The school, which boasts small class sizes for students up to second grade, is the only school off the main campus.
Thompson said there are plans to meet with an architect prior to the school board’s Feb. 14 meeting to go over options.
“We have limited opportunities if we’re going to do anything with our facilities,” he said. “By way of not surprising anybody, I’ll let our staff know beforehand what the intention is.”
The Network for Excellence in Washington Schools filed a lawsuit in 2007 on behalf of Matthew and Stephanie McCleary and their two children, and Robert and Patty Venema and their two children, saying the state was not meeting its constitutional duty to fund education. In 2010, the King County Superior Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and the Supreme Court issued its decision in 2012.
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Reporter Jesse Major can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at jmajor@peninsuladailynews.com.
Chimacum School District is feeling budgetary constraints as officials look to address a new state law that changes school funding. (Jesse Major/Peninsula Daily News)
