School Board Meets Minimum Education Plan Deadline, Cuts Teaching Staff

At the April 28 Orcas Island School District (OISD) Board meeting, the board unanimously – and reluctantly — approved the Minimum Education Plan in expectation of major cuts in state funding.

The effect of this plan is that reduction in force (RIF) letters will be sent out this week, notifying teachers and staff of expected cuts to their positions for the 2011-2012 school year, beginning Sept. 1, 2011.

OISD Superintendent Kline prepared the staffing schedule for next year, which cuts 9.64 FTE (full-time equivalent employment) staffing, for a total education program savings of $615,438.40. In his presentation to the board, Financial Manager Keith Whitaker explained that the two most likely scenarios for school funding next year would result in a budget “challenge” or shortfall of $528,400 to $640,500.

Filing a Minimum Education Plan in the spring is the first step in the process of financial planning for the 2011-2012 school year. And it is the cart before the “two-horse team” of state funding and enrollment that drives public K-12 education, both of which have yet to be determined.

At the meeting the board tried to wrap the district’s wallet around a budget for next year, even though the state legislature has not approved a budget, and enrollment numbers are not yet determined.

(Three versions of a budget exist: the Governor’s, the House version and the Senate version – all call for cuts to Alternative Learning Education (ALE), kindergarten-4^th grade enhancements, and transportation depreciation. Governor Chris Gregoire called legislators back for a special 30-day budget session last week)

Enrollment (upon which state funding is based) can only be projected until school actually starts in September.

Given those factors, Whitaker explained four budget scenarios:

1) The best case of $172,5000 to $371,400
2) The “more-likely scenario” of 624 enrollment $329,500 to $528,400 deficit
3) The “more likely scenario” of 602 enrollment $329,500 to $640,500 deficit.
4) The worst case scenario: $482,900 to $793,900 deficit.

Whitaker explained that he figured in known state revenue reductions and cost increases based on existing staff and enrollment and the financial apportionment enrollment currently generates.

Current enrollment is 667; Whitaker said he’d been deliberately conservative in his projections for next year. He also figured in the impacts of reductions to the current year revenue: the K-4 enhancement funding was cut as of Jan. 1, 2011.

“The minimum education plan is targeted toward the higher [impact] range; the likelihood of $371,400 [the “best-case scenario]is a dream come true,” he said.

“The mid-range is more likely, because we don’t know what the fund balance will end at. Any degree we fall below that will add to the challenge, dollar for dollar,” Whitaker said.

Superintendent Barbara Kline prepared the staffing model while Whitaker prepared the budget. The staffing plan calls for a reduction of 6.28 FTE (fulltime employee) in the K-8 grades, and for 1.7 FTE for the high school grades, making the following cuts:

.2  Spanish
.4 social studies
.5 OASIS
.2 Math
.2 Science
.2 Music

The plan also calls for.3 reduction in English language learning staff, and .2 reduction in Special Ed staff, and reduction of Waldron Island staff from 2.98 to 1.16.

Superintendent Kline reminded teachers on May 1 that every teacher’s contract runs until August 31, 2011, and that no current contracts will be changed: “All teachers are employed by the district under their current contract until August 31.”

(The board also voted to take on a $1 million loan to match federal funding for improvements to the elementary school this summer, covered in a separate article to be posted tomorrow)