For the last several months, Renton School District staff has been planning for the worst. Now, it looks like the proposed $800 million in state education budget cuts won’t affect the district as deeply as predicted.
Each district classroom will grow by about two students and the one-year contracts will not be renewed for about 35 teachers and teacher aides.
Those casualties aside, so far Renton looks like it will hang on to most of its 750 teachers, and weather the state budget cuts much better than expected. Certainly better than many of the surrounding districts that are facing teacher layoffs in the double and triple digits.
An early estimation of cuts to the district’s budget has decreased from the $6 million planned for in its earlier worst-case scenario budget to a rosier estimation of $3.5 million in cuts.
Most of those expected cuts — about $3.2 million — will come from a reduction in state funding for Initiative 728.
Passed by voters in 2000, I-728 provides state school districts with money to keep the sizes of classrooms down. Renton School District typically receives about $5 million each year from I-728. This year the district is expecting only $1.7 million from the initiative.
That expected loss of 70 percent of I-728 money will add about two students to every class in the district.
“That’s a big deal for teachers,” said district spokesperson Randy Matheson. “That means a lot more work and a lot more students.”
The Board of Directors for Renton School District will meet for a study session at 5:30 p.m. on May 13 at Kohlwes Education Center to discuss the Renton School District 2009-2010 budget. The meeting is open to the public. Kohlwes Education Center is at 300 S.W. Seventh St.
Still, even a meager $1.7 million from I-728 is better than the 0 dollars the district was expecting. The Washington State Legislature had earlier indicated that it would eliminate all funding for I-728.
After two years, the state Legislature is allowed to repeal voter-approved initiatives. As planned, the Legislature cut all funding in next year’s budget for another initiative passed by voters in 2000 — I-732 — which provides money for teacher and district staff pay raises state-wide.
“That’s actually a plus — it’s what we were hoping for all along,” Matheson said of the district’s anticipated $1.7 million from I-728.
Now district staff has to figure out how to use that money. But first it has to figure out how to make those $3.5 million in cuts.
The state Legislature presented its budget proposal to school districts early this week, but Matheson says the budget is not complete.
The proposed state budget does not yet specify how many, if any, federal stimulus dollars each school district will receive. Matheson says it may be a month before the Legislature begins to nail down those specifications.
“The bottom line is we’re still unclear what our budget will be next year based on the state budget,” Matheson said.
Washington state is expected to receive up to $10 billion in federal stimulus money, including about $356 million for education. That money would have to be used for Title I or special-education programs.
But the state may not give any of that money to Renton School District.
“We don’t know if we’ll get anything at all,” Matheson said.
Despite the uncertainty, the district has to move ahead with its budget, and plans to finalize a proposed budget in the next few weeks.
State law requires districts to notify teachers of pending layoffs by May 15.
Fortunately, in Renton, the two levies and $150 million construction bond passed by voters last spring have kept Renton School District out of what Matheson calls “dire straits.” If not for the passage of those measures, the district would have to make cuts beyond the damage caused by the reduction of I-728.
The only teachers proposed to lose their jobs in Renton next year are those among the 35 or so teachers and teacher aides who are on one-year contracts. Their contracts will not be renewed. Matheson says these contractors are not first-year teachers, but are merely filling in for teachers and teacher aides who are away for a year.
Before the end of the summer, some of these contractors may still be hired to fill vacancies caused by moves and retirements.
Those vacancies may also be filled by some of the 20 or so teachers that the district has hired with I-728 money since 2000.
“We will be able to give spots to all of those teachers we hired,” Matheson said.
The district has brainstormed several budget-cutting ideas. But all are still merely proposals. The district will not present its final proposed budget to the School Board until August.
And much could change after the full state budget is released. Until then, the district will continue to plan for the worst.
“We’ll plan for the worst, and hopefully once the state budget is released we’ll have a little (money to) reinstitute some things we’re thinking of cutting,” Matheson said.
