MLSD holds retreat, readies for next year

Facility planning, budget cuts, board goals reviewed at retreat

MOSES LAKE — Even though school is out of session for summer, members of the Moses Lake School District board began looking ahead to next year at the annual board retreat Sunday.

The one day retreat is a chance for board members to set new goals, evaluate previous ones and discuss key issues varying from the district's budget, Washington Assessment of Student Learning scores and facility planning.

"It's always a good process to go through and it gives us some direction," said Superintendent Steve Chestnut of the annual retreat.

Items up for discussion on the agenda this year were the draft strategic plan, draft budget, an update on the "Road Map to the Future" committee which is working on facility planning, and board goals for the 2006-2007 school year.

Goals under the strategic plan draft have not changed much from last year's, however, Chestnut emphasizes that one goal, improving student learning, will become increasingly important as the class of 2008 will be required to pass the WASL to graduate.

Students in grades three through eight and grade 10 are expected to take the test.

The district continues to strive for 90 percent of its students meeting WASL standards.

After notifying classified employees earlier this year of lay offs being made in the district in order to reduce expenditures, issues concerning the budget remained a topic of importance at the retreat.

"We still have a budget where expenditures exceed revenues but it's a whole lot closer than it was last year," said MLSD Assistant Superintendent of Business and Operations Monte Redal.

A decrease in federal and state monies and an increase in labor costs required the district to tighten its budget.

The district "cut out almost $1 million in expenditures to reduce what would have been a budget we would not be able to operate in the black," Redal said.

The layoffs made in June in which 69 employees received notices, 43 of whom received their jobs back or were placed into other positions; helped reduce costs, as did cuts to a daycare program at Columbia Basin Secondary School, delayed adoptions in math and reducing allocations to school buildings for supplies and materials.

At the retreat, administration went over plans for summer school programs, another area where the district had also been considering making cuts.

Chestnut said as of now, the board intends to offer kindergarten through 12th grade summer school next summer, but is not sure from what funding source the money will come from to pay for those programs.

Chestnut said he is confident the district will have a more stable budget for next school year.

A projected beginning fund balance for the start of next school year stands at $2,900,000. That is 4.8 percent of the total budget.

Redal mentioned the district did receive $115,000 from a bill that passed in the 2006 legislative session for WASL remediation and a half million more than last year in Initiative 728 monies from the state.

However, considering the decreases in federal funding to the district and requirements by the Legislature to pay a 3.3 percent cost of living adjustment to all its employees, budget woes for Moses Lake schools and others in the state may only get worse.

"Until the state does something this is going to be a problem in the future," Redal said in reference to a lack of funding.

In the update on the "Road Map to the Future" committee the board is expecting to hear back by Oct. 1 about the next step in facility planning.

Within the last year the district has held a planning symposium and worked on gathering input from community members regarding adding on to and building new school facilities.

Chestnut said, while very preliminary, there is the possibility the "Road Map to the Future" committee may recommend a February bond election to move forward with facility planning.

"It's very important because we're very crowded," Chestnut said, adding at the elementary level there are currently 30 portable classrooms.

Projected enrollment for the upcoming academic year stands at 6,490, up from 6,382 last school year.