SEQUIM — Classrooms at Sequim’s five public schools will be more crowded next fall, while fewer teachers and support staff will serve the district’s 2,800 students, according to a worst-case scenario laid out Wednesday night at Sequim High School.
Cuts in teachers and staff are likely, and class sizes must grow because of the state’s projected $8.3 billion budget deficit, Sequim School District Superintendent Bill Bentley told some 50 attendees of a community meeting in the school’s library.
The state of Washington is considering elimination of the Initiative 728 funds it has provided for schools to keep classes small, Bentley said.
Trim $1.3 million
The Sequim district receives about $1.3 million in I-728 money, so Bentley and his staff are looking for ways to trim that much in spending during the 2009-2010 academic year.
The Sequim School District’s 2008-2009 budget is $25.1 million, including more than $14.7 million for salaries of 164 teachers and 12 certificated specialists and counselors.
The budget also includes $2.146 million in spending on programs that are not state-mandated and therefore protected.
Those include food service, professional development for teachers, some transportation costs and what’s called “staffing enhancement” for kindergarten through fourth grade.
The superintendent took pains to emphasize, however, that he and his staff don’t yet know which programs and jobs they will cut or how much money must be carved from the district budget.
The questions about the near future far outnumber answers, Bentley said.
Gov. Chris Gregoire and the state Legislature hold school districts’ fates in their hands, so all he can do is gird his schools for the worst.
At the top of that grim list is what’s called a “reduction in force,” or layoffs of teachers and instructional support staff such as librarians.
Bentley said he has an idea of how many layoffs could be necessary, but he’s not ready to disclose that number.
The teachers and staff whose jobs may be cut will receive notices by May 15, Bentley said.
Yet “it’s not all over,” by that date. “We are going to have some attrition, some staff who will be retiring or resigning and moving away.”
How many won’t be known until later this spring, but “when we know the actual number, we may be able to go back,” and tell some teachers they will still have jobs come fall.
The cuts won’t be finalized until the school district’s budget is finished in late August, Bentley added.
Still, teachers and parents must prepare for larger rooms full of children.
“I expect we’ll see class sizes above 30. We cannot avoid that,” he said.
Until now, a Sequim school has been a place where each student received a personalized education, Bentley said.
“We care a lot about that . . . but we will have higher class sizes. We will have to reduce staff. We can’t cut $1.3 million without reducing staff.”
Enrollment stable
Bentley sought to present some good news to his audience: Enrollment in Sequim schools is stable and not declining as in the Port Angeles School District, so per-student state funding is relatively secure in Sequim.
The Port Angeles district has announced that it expects 130 fewer students next school year.
That, plus loss of state funds, has Port Angeles district officials also announcing plans to cut teachers and other staff.
Already, the superintendent has convened committees to find ways to save money on energy and materials. The district’s curriculum budget of $235,000 has been cut in half, so it’s buying almost no new textbooks and other materials, and it has imposed a freeze on both hiring and discretionary spending on technological equipment and travel.
In a month, on April 9, Bentley will give his list of staff reductions to the Sequim School District Board of Directors, which makes the final decisions on such cuts. Bentley’s recommendations will appear on the school district’s Web site, www.Sequim.K12.wa.us, on April 10.
Another community meeting on the district budget will be held at 7 p.m. April 16 in the Sequim High School Library, 601 N. Sequim Ave.
A summary of input from that meeting will be presented to the Sequim School Board meeting on April 23, and the board will hold a special meeting to make the cuts at 7 p.m. April 30 in the board room at Sequim High School. Layoff notices will go out during the two weeks after that.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
