SEQUIM — Faced with a declining enrollment, the Sequim School District will have to look for ways to cut costs in the 2003-04 school year budget.
It’s not an ideal situation for a first-year superintendent, but Garn Christensen said he’s taking a “wait-and-see” approach to budgeting.
Christensen — who succeeded outgoing administrator Mike Joyner in July — said enrollment projections show a district-wide decline of 175 students from the 2002-03 budgeted figures to those projected for 2003-04.
Because school districts receive state funding based on enrollment, the decline could result in a loss of $800,000 in the 2002-03 budget.
On Monday, Christensen presented a 2003-04 preliminary budget of about $19 million to the Board of Directors.
“It’s not a really optimistic outlook, but we’ll work with what we’ve got,” Christensen said.
That means implementing a “selective hiring process,” replacing only critical faculty and staff positions and not automatically filling spots vacated by retirements.
Board member David McHugh said since nearly 75 percent of the district’s spending is on personnel — both salaries and benefits — it makes sense to look toward hiring slowdowns as a way to absorb budget shortfalls.
He said the problem could partly resolve itself as more senior staffers leave.
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The rest of the story appears in the Wednesday Peninsula Daily News.