Board Approves Hiring Additional OASIS Teachers

State allocations, apportionment for full-time employees (FTE), formula adjustments, special small high school apportionment funding and state-mandated reductions all add up to a pretty complex soup that is public school funding on Orcas Island.

Those in attendance at the Special School Board Meeting called for Sept. 28 found this out as School Board members discussed adding staff to the alternative education program. Board member Tony Ghazel spoke up frequently to express his displeasure with the numbers and facts presented by the school district’s administration and Business Manager Keith Whitaker.

The Special Meeting was called to review the district’s budget, enrollment and staffing as it considered reinstatement of  four (4) FTE in the Orcas Alternative Student-Initiated Studies Program(OASIS). This program is supported by state funding and educates students grades K-12, including the OASIS High School.

Ghazel asked, “Do we have the money to pay for whatever staffing we need to have?”

Whitaker responded that the state allocation (based on enrollment) doesn’t cover all staffing; money is used from other sources, such as levy funding.

Superintendent Barbara Kline noted that while the general fund accounting “shows some negative balances, the OASIS program numbers are positive.”

When Board Member Scott Lancaster asked what certificated staffing is indicated on required form F-195, Whitaker noted that the deadline for filing the F-195 is “very early in the process, when staffing and staff costs are not co-related. The FTE is as accurate as we can make it at the time, but when there are changes –in retirement for example — that changes the ratio of FTE to dollars.”

The accounting was complicated by the fact that numbers had been transcribed in error from the previous accounting at the regular Sept. 22 meeting. Adjustments in one of the formulas used in the budget were made by Marilyn Sollers of the Educational Services District 189 in Anacortes.  Changes in the numbers in Sollers’ written documentation were questioned by Ghazel.

He asked, “How does it happen that class sizes are smaller in the elementary building but higher in OASIS classes, and still the District is short enough FTE for OASIS?” Currently, OASIS teachers, who showed up in force at the meeting, personally supervise 40 students.

Kline said, “We always fund lower class sizes, and try to offer a strong program in regular schools; we have grown OASIS into a great school that helps fund those regular classes.”

OISD Board President Janet Brownell said “We have to have a review of staffing at our retreat that is sustainable and carries us into the future.” The meeting has “illuminated our need to find a sustainable solution to the staffing situation we’re in.”

The board voted to approve 2. FTE to provide for current OASIS enrollment, with Board member Jim Sullivan abstaining.

The board then considered adding 1. FTE for the K-8 OASIS program.

Elementary/Middle School Principal Kyle Freeman told the board that ‘’an additional 25 [students] are very close to coming in. If we don’t approve opening the position, we’ll have to freeze enrollment and lose people.”

Board member Chris Sutton said, “If parents are under the impression we’re going to take them, then to go back at this point …..will hurt our reputation.”

Lancaster pointed out that last year, additional staffing was done incrementally as enrollment grew, and suggested that the board vote re-instatement of .6  to cover the 25 students cited by Freeman.

Sutton supported that action, saying, “We’re trying to come to middle ground where we can keep our reputation, and not turn away parents who have applied.

When asked if students dropped out of the OASIS program during the year, Freeman said,” The families that don’t like the way the rules work have already left. I don’t feel we’ll have a huge exodus unless we don’t have the staffing to support the students [already enrolled].

The board approved the motion to add.6 FTE to K-8 OASIS staffing, with Sullivan voting against the motion.

(Marilyn Sollers will be in attendance at a Special Orcas Island School District Board meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 12 at 5:30 p.m. in the School Library to discuss the district’s budget).