Early Warnings: Public School Funds Diminishing

Minimum Education Plan set at April Board Meeting

— by Margie Doyle —

Although Orcas Island School District’s (OISD) finances now look healthy, on the near horizon looms a minefield of threats to a balanced budget. The declining enrollment figures, inadequate state funding, removal of levy funding and structured salary increases make the prospect for 2016-17 discouraging, to say the least.

That has been the message delivered by OISD Business Manager Keith Whitaker at recent school board meetings. At its April 28 meeting the OISD Board approved the Minimum Education Plan for next year, with a reduction in 6.68 full-time employees (FTE), in part a response to the nearly 30 full-time enrollment (FTE) lost in this (2015-16) school year.

The Minimum Education Plan called for enrollment of 760 FTE in 2016-17, and for a corresponding reduction in Certified FTE from 49.89 to 43.21, broken down as follows:

• 0 reduction in Elementary K-6 FTE, for a minimum total of 10.42 FTE
• .32 reduction in Middle School 7-8 FTE, with a total of 3.38 FTE;
• 3 reduction in FTE for OASIS Alternative Education, for 10.56 FTE;
• 1.5 reduction in K-12 Music, English Language Learning , Special Education and Tech Support FTE, for a total of 6.45 FTE;
• .36 reduction at Waldron School for a total of 2.1 FTE.

While Reduction in Funding (RIF)layoffs happen nearly every year, and more often than not are reversed when September enrollment justifies hiring back laid-off teachers, the outlook is worse this year.

Whitaker reported, “The $540,000 general fund balance is higher than expected; and higher than it’s ever been. It’s stabilized at the 5.75% target set by the school board… but I don’t want anyone to get the  mistaken idea based on [this] positive performance, that we can sustain that.”

At the OISD March 24 Board Meeting, Whitaker said, “Salary schedule changes could severely impact us on the cost side, as well as the staff mix factor changes which would have similar negative impacts — but on the revenue side. These are not minor differences and it is still impossible to get an accurate estimate of what our funding will be.” (The state budget sets the funding by apportionment, and it has not yet been decided for the 2016-17 school year.)

“This year we’re facing less revenue and more expenses as givens. We have a challenge making those meet somehow,” said Whitaker.

Statewide developments that will impact Orcas Island public schools are:

• the scheduled (2017)  “levy cliff” as the Legislature requires an upcoming rollback of local levies for maintenance and operations to previous years;
• legislators still have to find new revenue for the State Supreme Court-ordered mandate to fund basic education by 2018;
• enrollment allocations from the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) are still not decided upon. OSPI is still grappling with the new unfunded mandates and changes in education laws; those changes may mean $150,000 decrease in funds to OISD next year, according to Whitaker

in addition to these developments, the local district faces:

• decline in enrollment, from  818.01 FTE September 2015 enrollment to 780.99 FTE April 2016 enrollment. The 2016-17 enrollment figure was set at 760 at the March meeting, down from 775 set previously for 2016-17. At the OISD March meeting Whitaker said, “[There’s] no way around the fact that it makes the challenge in the budget more difficult; a drop of 20 in FTE [enrollment] translates to $130,000 taken out of the budget.”
• teacher pay raises for which there is no corresponding mechanism to increase revenue. Whitaker reported that the salary schedule proposed in the State House would result in a cost of $1.75 to the Orcas School District for every $1 that’s specified in the schedule.
• a proposed capital improvements bond to be placed on the ballot in November.

State Senator Kevin Ranker also spoke recently at the Orcas Lions Sunrisers Club about the challenges to adequate funding of basic education.

He described the funding task before the legislature in 2017 as “the 3.5 Billion-dollar problem next year.” In 2014 the legislature passed a phase-in schedule, with certain deadlines.

That plan, which is endorsed by the State Supreme Court, fully funds basic education by 2018 in three phases:

• Phase I: Full state funding of transportation; maintenance, supplies and operating costs; full-day kindergarten; and lower class size in grades K–3 (maximum 17 students per teacher);
• Phase II: Full state funding of the salaries of current educational staff;
• Phase III: State funding for enhanced levels of educational staff and enhanced salaries. (From OSPI/HotTopic-McCleary.pdf )

A bi-partisan committee agreed not to use existing revenues to pay for the needed funding, such as those funds earmarked for mental health, senior programs, higher education and other safety net program. But Ranker says the Legislature’s Democrats and Republics “split” on where to find new money. His proposal to tax capital gains (excluding businesses and property, but including stock dividends for those worth over $750,000), was rejected last year.

“There’s got to be new revenue; we’ve got to figure that out,” said Ranker.

He also spoke of the “Levy Cliff”: When the levy increases “sunset” next year, and the allowable levy rate goes down, “Most school districts will lose a ridiculous amount of money next year.”

District Representative Kris Lytton wrote constituents this week, “”Next session the Legislature MUST adopt a solution that fully funds basic education.” She also spoke of the continued teacher shortage: “Last year the House led the way on reducing K-3 class sizes, but those investments only go so far without a quality teacher in every classroom. This is part of fully funding education.”

School District Superintendent Eric Webb said, “The Orcas Island School district is being faced with multiple funding challenges for the 2016-2017 school year. Increased expenses, lower revenue, and declining enrollment are significant challenges for our district to be facing in a single year. These challenges come as no surprise to the district, however, and we have been strategically planning to offset the effects of this as best we can over the past two years.

“The fact that we have anticipated this and planned for this, does not mean we are out of the woods by any means. On a positive note, we have built up a healthy carryover. Unfortunately, we have instituted a nonrenewal of 6.68 FTE staff as one of many conservative measures. We will continue to creatively seek out ways to overcome this challenge, as revenues continue to decrease at both the state and federal levels, without impacting the quality of education offered to our students!

“This district would like to thank the community for their continued and overwhelming support of bond projects and levies, Orcas Island Education Foundation (OIEF) for funding partial teacher salaries and programs, Orcas Island Community Foundation (OICF) for funding numerous district programs, and the Music Advocacy Group (MAG) for their financial support of our music programs. We are so fortunate to live in a community that is constantly giving back to the children of this district!”