||| FROM LILI HEIN |||
If you have available staff, please send a reporter to attend the next Orcas Island School District Board at 5 p.m. on Thursday, August 26. The main topic for the last OISD board meeting was the budget, including looming budget and staff cuts, despite voters approving two levies in the past year. The shortfall is mainly due to enrollment losses. Following a national trend due to covid when public schools closed and private schools stayed open, many students left OISD to avoid remote learning and switched to attend in-person at Orcas Christian or Salmonberry, which both now have waiting lists. Salmonberry boasted its highest enrollment with 60 students in a recent press release for its 20th anniversary.
At the last OISD board meeting, Superintendent Eric Webb presented enrollment numbers for the past ten years, showing steady enrollment. However, as one astute board member, Ayn Gailey, pointed out, the numbers did not distinguish between the loss of existing students versus new students arriving on Orcas. For example, five existing students leave OISD, but six new students arrive on Orcas, so enrollment appears steady or growing by hiding the loss of five existing students. It may be a lot of work to dig into old student files to compile annual numbers of students leaving OISD, but seems like an important detail since enrollment is a foundational piece of the budget. Perhaps there could be a system to track students leaving OISD, new students, and also former students if any return to OISD.
At the same meeting, many families submitted public comments in support of expanding one of OISD’s bright spots for potential to increase enrollment, Orcas Island Montessori Public (OIMP). OIMP has a long waiting list for first grade and many family requests to add fourth grade as OIMP is currently restricted to grades 1-3 and one teacher. One board member agreed that OIMP expansion should be pursued, as OISD should welcome such promising opportunities to increase enrollment in OISD. However, the board chair found a lack of interest and preference to focus on other priorities among the rest of the board. Instead of pursuing ways to increase enrollment like OIMP expansion, Superintendent Webb offered another solution to budget shortfalls, by directing OASIS teachers to increase their workloads. OASIS is OISD’s highly successful remote learning school with a continual waiting list. OASIS essentially props up the budget for OISD’s brick and mortar students.
Superintendent Webb also presented numbers showing the revenue value per student, in order to calculate budget impact of enrollment loss per student, which appeared to be much lower than previous estimates. Hopefully, OISD will invest more time to determine the accurate revenue loss, whether it includes only state funding or also federal and other sources. Also, the numbers should calculate the revenue loss over multiple years per student, since most students do not leave OISD for only one year but multiple years depending on the grade. In addition, when OISD loses a brick and mortar student, it also loses a seat for OASIS, because the state restricts OASIS to not exceed 50% of total enrollment in the district. The state gives less funding for OASIS students, but still a significant amount bolstering the OISD budget.
Taxpayers put their trust in OISD by approving two levies in the past year, so OISD should reciprocate with very carefully reviewed budget numbers. Similarly, OISD should demonstrate sincere efforts to minimize enrollment losses by strongly pursuing opportunities to add students like OIMP expansion. Asking OASIS teachers to carry a heavier burden is not the best solution to save the school budget.
I kindly request the Sounder and Orcasonian to attend the next OISD board meeting on August 26 to help verify the related details here and provide taxpayers with much needed information on how the recent levies are still not enough to buffer the school budget. In particular, independent eyes are needed to verify the value of revenue per student and the true cost of enrollment loss. A modest funding request was presented for OIMP expansion to add teaching staff in order to add students from its waiting list and add fourth graders. If these students leave OISD, what is the revenue loss compared to the cost of adding staff to retain enrollment? It’s quite a confusing pickle to both have budget cuts due to enrollment losses, while also claiming it costs too much to add staff for a promising opportunity to retain or increase enrollment. Please help with reporting on this so taxpayers can have a truly deeper understanding of OISD’s current budget situation.
I am so proud of the way our school system has handled our COVID situation. They, like teachers across our country, have pivoted from one way of teaching to another one and back again. It’s been a whirlwind for everyone working with children. I don’t think now is the time to judge the loss of students at the school. Everyone is just trying to do best by the children and for some families that has meant putting their child into a different setting. This last year has been a hard one for all of our kids. My 9th grader is anxious to get back into the classroom this fall.
Our family continues to support the teachers and the administration for their hard work during this tough time. I would say the board is making the right choice by not expanding programs during this crisis – including the Montessori program. I support the Montessori program in the public school. It has been a wonderful addition to our school and one we participated in. In 4th grade our student made the transition out of that classroom and has thrived in the various classrooms she has been enrolled in. Our school district continues to make improvements and come up with creative solutions to combat the challenges of a small district such as varying class sizes year to year and budgetary struggles.
It takes an island and I so appreciate our support system that is offered at the public school for our island kids. It’s a great team we have there at the school!
Thank you, Lili, for this insightful and informative letter.
When a student leaves OISD to enroll in private education, where does the tax revenue that the District loses go? Does it go with the student to their new school? If it isn’t available to the public school district, where is it spent?
If these public funds do go to the student’s new school, what would be the public’s interest in additional tax levies to subsidize private education for those who can afford to forego public education?
Even when enrollment decreases, the mandate to provide quality education tor all students regardless of ability to pay remains with public schools.
I am grateful for the excellent public education I received, but some voters might not favor indirectly subsidizing private alternatives, if such diminishes the education and opportunities of those students left behind.
How were the private schools able to stay open while our public school could not.
Dick Bronson, the public schools are directed by the state OSPI and governor. Private entities are not funded by the government money and are able to make their own rules.
As far as the school, I thought back in 2018 they were expecting to have a 4-6th Montessori class by this year. I believe if they did, the enrollment numbers would be more steady and they would have more funding.
Our public school system is sound, I’ve questioned our governance of the school for my own reasons at times.. but the fact remains, we have a good system and it’s up to each of us to question, communicate, then get on board with our public system with resolution and the respect it deserves.
The system is us folks, remember that.
So if you have impute, do your magic, then show by example to our kids the real learning opportunity, to be a citizen.
Tom- Public funding does not follow the student to the private institution. That money stays with the State pool.
Dick and Nicole- In the pandemic, public and private schools were subjected to the same health restrictions from Washington State. Many private schools opted to open with restrictive protocols. Many public schools opted not to.
The state stays generally out of functional governance of private institutions but the health orders were statewide, applicable to public and private alike.
Welcome to the complex puzzle that is school budgeting. You have to commit to teachers for the coming year before you know what the enrollment is, and if you guess in the wrong direction, then mid year you get to do things like cutting bus routes, or sports, or other expenses that are more flexible than salaries.
If you guess in the right direction, then you have extra money at the end of the year that you can use to be less conservative in your next year calculations, but having too much means you did not spend enough on actual education of our children.
There is no easy answer here.
Oh, if only theOrcasonian had a reporter to cover the School Board meeting. Any volunteers?