Raelene Rossart’s son will begin attending the North Kitsap School District next year — that is, if the budget can be controlled.
As a parent living in another district, she would like to see her student begin and end his public education in the same district. However, the decision to keep him enrolled in the district depends on how the gap of funding from the state is filled.
“If I’m driving him to school, I want to drive him to the best school,” Rossart said during a community budget discussion Wednesday at Kingston High.
Rossart was one of more than 20 participants in the district’s first community discussion of the budget. Though concerns were widespread, finding alternatives to program cuts was the underlying message.
The meeting brought another possible funding mechanism into the public debate: an increase in funding provided by the school property tax levy.
Last year, North Kitsap voters approved the levy with a 71.52 percent “yes” vote, providing the district with $13.2 million for 2011. With a levy lid increase by the state Legislature, a maximum-allowed 4 percent hike in the levy would increase property tax bills to at least $2.10 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. The levy is currently $1.96 per $1,000.
The district faces an estimated funding shortfall of about $3 million in the 2011-12 school year. A combination of state cuts to funding, which includes money used to reduce class sizes in grades K-4, and an over-allocation in teaching and non-teaching staff has left the district looking for ways out of the hole.
The loss of funding for K-4, which will begin Feb. 1 and continue through 2013, results in the district being overstaffed by 7.3 full-time-equivalent positions. The school district overestimated its expected enrollment for 2010-11, which resulted in 9.4 fewer FTE positions needed. Unionized positions cannot be cut midyear.
With another large graduating class this year and a predicted smaller class enrolling in the district in 2011-12, the district will be overstaffed about another 9.7 FTE. As teachers return from leaves of absence—about 5.4 FTE — the district will be about 32 FTE overstaffed.
If the 32 FTE staff positions were eliminated, the district would still face an approximate $600,000 funding shortfall.
Because of the cuts and loss of enrollment funding, the district expects to have an ending fund balance of about $2,640,000 at the end of the 2010-11 school year. This end fund balance results in a carryover to the next year of 4.3 percent; the state-recommended carryover is 5 percent.
Staffing cuts and increased class sizes — an average of two students next school year — are expected, Superintendent Richard Jones said.
“With an oversized class, students can’t get that expected quality of education,” Kingston High School teacher Vivian Youngquist said.
