PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles School District teachers and other employees will learn next week how many jobs will disappear next year — and there might be a chance that no staff members will be laid off.
Last week, the Port Angeles School Board approved as many as 47 layoffs for the 2012-2013 school year, including 25 teachers and 22 classified staff.
The loss of that many positions would be a worst-case scenario, Superintendent Jane Pryne said Monday.
There is no indication that the total number of layoffs mentioned will occur, she said.
While there is almost certainly going to be a reduction of the number of employees, there may be no actual layoffs, Board Member Steve Baxter said.
“There is every possibility if there are enough retirements or other voluntary exits we could have a zero cut,” Baxter said.
The board had to take action, despite lacking final numbers, because of a May 1 deadline under a contract with the teachers union to notify any personnel that could be affected.
The final number of positions to be eliminated will be announced May 4, when the School Board agenda is released for the May 8 board meeting, Pryne said.
Notifications of layoffs are required to be provided to teachers in positions that would be eliminated by May 15.
Layoffs will be based on the number of students who are projected to return to local schools this fall. That number comes from estimates the district has nearly completed, Pryne said.
In the past year, the district’s enrollment dropped by 144 students, mostly at the elementary-school level.
Although state per-student funding stabilized this year after several years of cuts, the district — like other districts on the North Olympic Peninsula — has experienced a pattern of falling enrollment for the past few years.
The trend is expected to continue for the next 15 years, according to district research.
As of April 1, the district’s five elementary schools enrolled 127 fewer students than in April 2011 — the equivalent of five classrooms of children.
When the state budget crisis began in 2008 and the state slashed the education budget, the district formed a committee to create a list of programs that could be cut from the budget that would have minimal effects on classrooms, Pryne said.
She noted that the district has been whittling away at the programs identified by the committee since then, as state school funding fell annually.
“We have nothing left on our list,” she said.
The state education budget stabilized for the 2012-2013 school year, but increasing costs of insurance and declining enrollment will continue to erode the district’s budget.
The loss of elementary students prompted the board to consider closing the oldest school in the district.
In January, the board voted to keep 57-year-old Franklin Elementary School at 2505 S. Washington St., for another year or two but said the school’s days are numbered.
Franklin is the largest elementary school in the district, and there is not enough room at other schools to take all of its students.
The district has been tracking students who withdraw from school, and most of the departing students have moved out of the district, Pryne said.
At the high school level, there are 10 fewer students in classrooms this year compared to last year, but an enrollment of 63 students was above the district’s projections.
The pattern of losing more students in elementary schools than in high school reverses the usual trend, Pryne said.
In the past, the district had problems with high school graduation rates, but more students are staying in school and graduating, she said.
Enrollment at Stevens Middle School is nearly unchanged, she added.
The middle school was identified by the state Department of Education as one of the top middle schools in Washington for the past two years.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
