SEQUIM — The Sequim School Board have agreed to a $48 million budget that for the 2023-2024 school year that eliminates six teaching positions, without laying anyone off, and cuts about $500,000 in classified and certificated positions from the district office.
Board members agreed on Aug. 21 on the plan that anticipates slight growth in enrollment while reducing a number of expenditures, as the district sees a decline in federal funding.
“This budget pulled together all the best information we have,” Sequim Superintendent Regan Nickels said just prior to the board’s vote.
In seeking reductions to the district budget over last year’s budget, district administrators set cuts of more than $445,000 in cutting three secondary teaching positions and another $420,000 in three elementary teaching position reductions. The cuts will be by attrition.
Nickels said a priority for the district was to reduce the amount of spending in the district office, which had increased by about 35 percent in the past five years. The newest budget cuts district office spending by about 16 percent, she said.
The cuts, she noted, mean some restructuring and “having people do some things they haven’t done year prior.”
When district personnel considered budget cuts earlier this year, Nickels said administration anticipated a more than $4 million shortfall. But with a number of resignations and more state support, this budget requires about half of those reductions.
“We certainly have reached a point in excess of two million [dollars] in reductions,” Nickels said.
This budget, Nickels said at an Aug. 7 public hearing, does offer strong wages for staff.
“I think that we were very fair in making sure our salaries continue to be competitive on the [Olympic] Peninsula, if not off the Peninsula,” the superintendent said.
About $8.2 million of the 2023-24 budget’s revenue comes from local sources — including the local taxpayer-approved levy and donations — while about $34.3 million come from state sources (student-based apportionment, food service, transportation, vocational and others) and another $5.6 million from federal sources.
Expenditures include about $19.7 million in certificated salaries, a group that includes teachers, about $8.3 million in classified salaries and another $10.6 million in employee benefits.
Other spending includes $6.3 million in purchased services and $2.6 million in supplies and materials.
Revenue from state sources is up from about $30.1 million to $34.3 million in 2023-24, but the district will have about $3.1 million less in federal dollars as funds from ESSER (Emergency and Secondary School Relief) sources expire.
The 2023-24 draft budget earmarks about $2.85 million in the general fund — about 5.9 percent of the overall general budget.
“We’re making sure we can have that minimum fund balance; in case we need to spend it today, it would be there,” Darlene Apeland, the school district’s director of operations, said in early August.
“That [ending fund balance] is in our minds at all times, to be watching that year round,” she said. “The more grants we get, that’s one good source way to increase our ending fund balance.”
Grants in this year’s budget include about $35,000 in the alternative learning education technology field and about $23,000 in food service, district officials said.
The budget does earmark some enhancements to student activities, including about $300,00 for playground equipment at Greywolf and Helen Haller Elementary schools, and about $250,000 in field trips, outdoor education experiences and professional development.
Enrollment
Anticipated enrollment for the 2023-24 school year is about 2,613 students, a figure that includes 65 in Running Start and 250 students at Olympic Peninsula Academy and Dungeness Virtual School.
The district anticipates 479 students at Greywolf Elementary School, which for the first time will be home to students in pre-kindergarten through second grade, and 533 Helen Haller Elementary students, which will house students in grades 3-5 for the first time; previously the schools featured classes for K-5 students.
The budget anticipates 566 students at Sequim Middle School and 718 students at Sequim High.
“One of our goals is to grow our enrollment,” Nickels said in early August.
Enrollment in Sequim schools dropped significantly in the COVID-19 pandemic. After a high-water mark of 2,700 students in June of 2019, student enrollment dropped to 2,618 in June 2020, 2,406 in June 2021 and 2,408 in June 2022, rising slightly to 2,447 this June.
At the Aug. 21 meeting, Nickels added after the budget discussion that the district needs to keep in mind the many items not on the budget — in particular, Sequim’s aging school facilities.
Practice concerns
Nicole Brewer, representing a Sequim soccer boosters group, addressed board directors at their Aug. 21 meeting, noting that she and other advocates for the Sequim High School girls soccer program are concerned about practice space.
The team currently uses the Albert Haller Playfields, located about a mile east of the SHS campus. That, Brewer said, creates safety and logistics concerns for players, as they are walking or getting rides with inexperienced drivers to practice.
Further, she said, the growing interest and use in the city-owned fields have reduced the average practice time for the team to about 90 minutes.
“It’s just not enough,” Brewer said of the allotted time.
Sequim High School does have other fields; however, teams are not allowed to use the field at the district stadium during the season, and fields just north of the high school — formerly used as practice spaces — are unkempt and unsafe, Brewer said, with some of the land used for the new SHS greenhouse.
“It really does limit us on what we’re able to do,” Brewers said.
Brewer, who noted she and others have a petition with more than 100 signatures asking for a resolution, said she’s in conversation with administrators for “an equitable and safe place to train.”
Technology limits
Nickels said Sequim staff are looking at policy regarding limiting technology use on Sequim campuses.
She said the Peninsula School District (Gig Harbor) is having students relinquish their cell phones as well as ear buds and headphones when on campus.
Concerned about the impact of cell phones on students’ learning environments and mental health, Peninsula School District officials are setting firmer boundaries on digital access, and Sequim is considering the same, Nickels said.
She said the district will seek input before suggesting a policy change, including views from students.
New start time
Sequim School Board directors on Aug. 7 agreed to a new start time for board meetings: 5:30 p.m.; previously, meetings were held at 6 p.m.
Directors on Aug. 21 also agreed to cancel their next scheduled meeting for Sept. 5 — the day before the 2023-24 school year starts, and also the date of several scheduled back-to-school open houses. The board meets next on Sept. 18.
“I do not see that [the cancellation] would hinder our operations,” Nickels told directors.
