Lake Washington School Board get first look at budget
June 26, 2009
By Christopher Huber
New June 26, 3:38 p.m.
Considering the dismal state of education funding in Washington, the mood was about as upbeat as it could be when Lake Washington School District officials presented the School Board with a proposed $216.7 million budget June 22.
As a result of state funding cuts and the general economic decline, the district is wrestling with a gaping $7.7 million budget hole.
After a series of community meetings generated unprecedented community involvement, the district decided to save all but a handful of teaching and administrative jobs.
The board considered a spending plan that does so with significantly increased fees, spending cuts and other measures.
“In 13 years with the district, I’ve never had to make these kinds of cuts,” Superintendent Chip Kimball said.
Barbara Posthumus, the district’s business services coordinator, spent much of the evening presenting the rundown of areas cut and areas where the district may have to rely on extra revenue or federal stimulus money to remain in the black.
“It’s going to be a challenge for us, but we feel pretty good about the process we used with our stakeholders to get their take on it,” said Board Member Doug Eglington (Sammamish). “It reflects what a good cross section … what its priorities are.”
The proposed budget for the 2009-2010 school year is a decrease of about $1.3 million from last year’s budget (about .6 percent).
The biggest single area cut is $2.2 million from “Regular Education.” This translates to fewer professional development days for teachers, losing vice principals at the elementary school level, cuts to building maintenance and secretarial and administrative staff.
Posthumus stressed the added complexities of incorporating approximately $6 million in one-time federal stimulus dollars, which made it more difficult to compose the budget.
“This has been one of the most complex budgets I have worked on and put together,” Posthumus said to the board.
Much of the new federal money will fund Title 1 ($500,000) and IDEA ($2.5 million) programs throughout the district, according to the budget documents. The other $3 million will go toward various student achievement funds.
The board expressed concern about raising various program and sport fees, which the district projects will generate $1.3 million, but ultimately trust the community’s judgment.
“All of us were troubled by having to raise athletic participation (fees). It’s going to be hard on people. As parents, we’re used to paying various fees outside of school. Again, in terms of the way we approached this challenge…they (the community) clearly understood the tradeoffs,” Eglington said. “We just hope the community will be patient and understanding as we try to work through these challenges, because we’re all kind of in this together.”
The Lake Washington School Board will deliberate the budget over the summer and is expected to approve a final budget for the 2009-2010 school year Aug. 10. The budget documents are available online at http://www.lwsd.org/About/Budget-Info/Pages/default.aspx.
Reporter Christopher Huber can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 242, or chuber@isspress.com.
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