Everett School District turns to community for answers

Faced with budget cuts of up to $5 million next year, the Everett School District recently asked the community to answer two key questions:

What cuts would you make and what programs would you protect?

The cuts will come from a school

district being run this year on a budget of $185 million.

More than 1,200 people responded to the online survey. They indicated support for money-generating steps, such as increasing school lunch prices and charging more for rental of school facilities by community groups. They also had some suggestions for programs they wanted to protect, such as keeping class sizes in kindergarten through fourth grade smaller than other grades.

That still leaves a very large budget “egg,” involving millions of dollars, to crack.

The public will get another opportunity to discuss the budget choices during a meeting that begins at 5 p.m. Tuesday night at the school district’s Educational Service Center, 4730 Colby Ave.

The budget shortfall has been created due to cuts in state funding for education. Each year, the state sends money to local school districts. Since state lawmakers have yet to approve a new budget, no one knows yet just how big the cuts will be.

So the school district is preparing three budget-paring lists, with cuts of $3 million, $4 million and $5 million.

Due to the size of the cuts that will have to be made, the school district could be facing cuts in positions next year, perhaps as many as 45. The district hopes to accomplish any job loss through attrition, said Jeff Moore, who oversees the school district’s finances.

Voters approved a special four-year supplemental education levy in August. After the state retroactively made cuts in education funding, the district will end up using about $1.6 million of the levy funds this school year.

The school district faces a shortfall for the 2011-12 school year despite the estimated $2.3 million the levy is expected to generate.

A 21-member advisory group, made up of business people, local community members, teachers, administrators, school staff, and high school students, are now wrestling with specific recommendations to make to the school board.

“We’re trying to have minimal effect on the classroom, but the cuts are pretty significant,” said Angie Sievers, an Everett High School graduate and one of the committee members. She has worked in the past as a teacher and as a sales representative for a surgical company.

The group has considered a long list of ideas, said Lori Kloes, development director at Providence General Foundation.

They include energy conservation, reducing the number of consultants the school district uses, having high school students take public transportation to school and the possibility that some job cuts may occur.

“There’s not a lot of fat in the budget,” she said. “These are really hard decisions.”

Ted Wenta, vice president of operations for the YMCA of Snohomish County and an advisory committee member, said he’s been impressed by the opportunities for the public to have its say on the tough budget decisions faced by the school district.

Among the suggestions being considered to increase revenue is boosting the cost of meals by a quarter and increasing the charge for community groups to rent school facilities.

Steps like those could be taken, Wenta said, but would generate a relatively small amount of money.

“When 85 percent of your budget is personnel, savings of $25,000 to $50,000 really gets dwarfed in the overall size of the reduction,” he said.

The group even considered a proposal to impose a surcharge for anyone who wanted more than four tickets for high school graduation.

That was looked at as part of a pledge to give a top-to-bottom review of the school district budget. It would be tough step to take, he said. “For some of these families, it may be the first person in their family to graduate.”

School safety is another topic that has broad public support for continued funding, Wenta said.

So how can the group compile a list of savings that total from $3 million to $5 million?

“Mostly likely classroom and support services,” he said.

With 70 percent of survey respondents saying that kindergarten through fourth grade class sizes should be kept smaller than those in higher grades, there aren’t a lot of options, he said. It could mean changes for upper elementary, middle and high school classes.

The public seems to understand the difficult decisions the school district faces, he said.

“No one enjoys making these decisions,” Wenta said. “Yeah, it’s painful. No, we don’t want to do it. And at the end of the day, we have a $3 million to $5 million problem we have to solve that’s not going away.”

Weigh in

People can talk one-on-one to school board members about suggestions for cuts, and what programs to protect, in next year’s budget during a meeting Tuesday. It is scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Educational Service Center, 4730 Colby Ave., Everett.

Some of the suggestions

Here are a handful of the more than 500 written comments from the Everett School District’s recent community survey on what to cut and what to protect in next year’s budget. All comments were submitted anonymously.

“Don’t take away from the arts, music, singing, drama, drawing, painting, writing. These are as necessary as reading, math, history, science and physical education. Don’t take away the joy, or you will take away the learning.”

“If public (transportation) becomes an option for kids, you should ask whether people would be able to afford that or not.”

“Offer early retirement package for older teachers. This will allow for newer teachers at lower pay levels and more energetic teachers able to handle larger classes, etc. Also a humane way to reduce teacher positions.”

“You need to clean house and get rid of the dead wood and your efficiency and effectiveness will go up — and get better results even if you have to go to larger class sizes, etc.”

“I don’t believe free and reduced lunch students should get a free ride. They should have to pay something (no matter how small) toward the pay-to-play for sports.”

“Please protect the highly capable program from being eliminated. This program is basic education for gifted children.”

“One thing you cannot do and that is cut transportation. It is a safety issue.”

“Should the Everett School District initiate discussions with other area school districts to identify and implement areas of cost saving collaboration between districts (eliminate duplication of services?)”

“Should we negotiate with the unions to reduce pay by 1 percent for all employees? (This reflects the reality of many who have taken much larger reductions in pay and pay freezes to keep the number of employees in their companies).”