PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles School District is beginning to evaluate cuts that may include slashes to the work force — including teachers — and programs.
At least seven teachers, and possibly more, will lose their jobs for the 2009-2010 school year as the district struggles to trim about $2.8 million from its budget in the light of declining enrollment and state financial woes.
All-day kindergarten could be at risk, Superintendent Gary Cohn said.
“To say this is an unprecedented time is an understatement,” Cohn said.
Although the state Legislature likely will not release information until early to mid-April, the School Board on Monday unanimously authorized Cohn to begin the process of planning a reduced educational program for the next school year, with an operating budget that cuts expenditures nearly to the level of “reasonably anticipated revenues.”
The resolution passed by the board instructs Cohn to take action required by law to notify certificated, classified and administrative employees who would be affected.
“In the past, I believed that we might be able to get by the next several years with the cuts being through attrition,” Cohn said.
“I am now convinced that will not be possible and that it will be inevitable to let some people go.”
The fiscal advisory committee, which will develop recommendations to present to the School Board on April 1, will host a public meeting at 4:15 p.m. March 19 at Jefferson Elementary School, 218 E. 12th St., to answer questions and hear ideas on what to do.
The committee will rank the ideas, finishing by March 24. The School Board is expected to approve cuts by May 4.
Before May 1, school employees who may be laid off will be notified. By contract, many school employees must be informed of layoffs before May.
No answers
District officials emphasized that they don’t know how many people might be laid off, how many teachers might lost their jobs, which teachers would be cut or which programs might be cut.
“We just don’t know yet. We don’t know what the state’s going to do,” said Tina Smith-O’Hara, district communication specialist.
“We have to plan, though. But we just don’t know.”
Said School Board member Patti Happe at Monday’s meeting: “What I’m hearing is that we’ll go through this whole process, and we won’t really know what the budget is” because the state Legislature won’t have finished its work by April 1.
“It makes me nervous to do this with such a high level of uncertainty. This is no way to educate kids.”
Board vice president Lonnie Linn said he is worried about the teachers.
“The worst part about all of this is that there is nowhere for them to go,” Linn said. “Every district is in the same boat as we are.”
Biggest deficits
The two biggest potential deficits the district faces are a projected decline in enrollment and the likely cut — or possible elimination — of student achievement money from a fund called I-728.
The expected decline in enrollment of 130 students in the next school year means the elimination of seven teachers, based on a proportional reduction that the district has followed for several years.
Fifteen teachers and all-day kindergarten — which the district began for the 2008-09 school year — are funded by I-728 funds.
The district expects at least a 25 percent cut in I-728 funds, which would carve $516,000 from the district’s revenues.
But Mark Jacobson, executive director of business and operations, suggested that legislators may decide to cut the entire I-728 allocation to school districts.
In either case, all-day kindergarten could be in danger, he said.
If the entire program is cut, then the district would lose $1.9 million in I-728 revenue, which also pays for nine days of professional development for teachers, curriculum adoption coaches, and pre-kindergarten program support.
The state Legislature is also considering changes in the K-4 staffing funding formula, which pays for nearly 10 teachers, Cohn said.
Gov. Chris Gregoire’s budget proposal released in December estimated a $6 billion shortfall, but since then that estimate has grown to about $8.5 billion, Cohn said.
Based on the governor’s earlier, smaller, deficit estimate, the district would lose about $805,000. In addition to the loss of I-728 funds, it would also be cut $115,000 in local effort assistance funds, $79,000 for math and science and $95,000 for insurance allocation and other adjustments.
Cohn — who has accepted an offer to take over the superintendent’s position in Everett and expects to leave by July — said that the district would draw on reserves to balance its budget but that he did not know to what degree.
Questions and comments may be e-mailed to budget@portangelesschools.org or mailed to Superintendent Gary Cohn, 216 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles, WA, 98362.
The district will post updates on its Web site at www.portangelesschools.org. Click on the administration link, then budget and fiscal responsibility.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
