PORT TOWNSEND — The Port Townsend School District is facing the dual whammy of decreasing student enrollment and facilities in need of renovation.
That’s the message that Schools Superintendent Tom Opstad delivered to an audience of about 40 at Monday’s Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce luncheon meeting in the Fort Worden State Park Commons.
The current enrollment in the school district is about 1,440 in kindergarten through the 12th grade, said Opstad.
That’s down from 1,779 in the 1996-97 school year.
The current amount is expected to drop to about 1,200 in the next three to four years, Opstad said.
Basic state funding to public school districts is based on enrollment.
At the same time, the district’s four schools — Grant Street Elementary, 1673 Grant St., built in 1956; Mountain View, 1919 Blaine St., built in 1961; Blue Heron Middle School, 3939 San Juan Ave., built in 1995; and Port Townsend High School, 1500 Van Ness St., built in the early 1900s — need repairs and maintenance, Opstad said.
By the numbers
He noted some statistics for the chamber audience. The school district owns 56 acres in Port Townsend and 250,317 square feet of building space.
The 2006 budget is $12.8 million, with a $2.3 million annual operation and maintenance levy expiring at the end of 2007.
Opstad said the Port Townsend School Board, chaired by John Eissinger, is expected to pass a resolution Dec. 11 proposing a new levy to Port Townsend voters in a February special election.
Opstad said the proposed levy is expected to be an increase from the current levy approved by voters in 2004 that remained at $2.3 million each year since.
“There was no cost of living built into that,” Opstad said of the current levy.
He said the district’s budget typically consists of about 70 percent state funding, 21 percent local funding and 9 percent federal funding.
Because the state funding is enrollment-based, projected declining enrollments portend lesser state revenue.
