School Board Votes on Reductions and a Levy

Submitted by Keith Whitaker
Business Manager, Orcas Island School District

At the regular Board meeting on Thursday, July 28, the Board approved the resolution adopting the budget for the 2011-12 school year. Due to continuing reductions in State revenue, the budget included some reductions in most programs, district-wide, including 4-plus FTE of teachers that remain laid off from the Spring reductions-in-force. It also included the 1.9% State reduction in salaries for all certificated (teaching) staff and similar reductions to administrative salaries.

The biggest reduction in funding this year is the cut in funding to ALE programs. Although the details of this cut have still not been finalized by OSPI, we are working with a preliminary figure of $189,000 in reduced apportionment for our OASIS students. It is expected that the funding reductions from the State will continue through this year and next, so the 2011-12 school year will be one of austerity.

The budget was based on an assumed enrollment of 624 FTE, considerably below the 667 FTE that we ended the current year with. This was done to protect against potential losses of enrollment from continued economic strain and from the impact that the major rule changes for ALE programs (still in process) could have. We are confident that the enrollment will be above 624, and are hopeful that it will be at, or above current levels. The additional apportionment from any added enrollment would be used to bring back staff that has been reduced, or to reduce the cuts that have been made to other spending.

On other fronts, the Board met with the Parks and Recreation Board for an hour to discuss issues regarding the potential transfer of Buck Park from the school to the Parks and Recreation District. The boards decided to create several working groups, made up of members from each, to study and report back on specific issues. These included: ownership of the well, division of maintenance costs for the well, metering of joint water use, and the potential conditions under which ownership of the Park could revert to the School District.

The Board also voted to put a Capital Projects Levy on the ballot in November. This would be a one year levy for $900,000. The proceeds would be used to pay off the debt generated by the recent non-voted bond sale. The mil rate for the projected levy would be approximately 30 cents per thousand dollars of assessed value, and would be for a single year only.