Warden schools plan for budget cuts

WARDEN — Faced with the possibility of budget cuts, the Warden school board discussed a “worst-case scenario” situation Thursday.

“We’ll probably be looking at something better than this,” Superintendent Sandra Sheldon assured the board.

The district is planning for budget cuts as Gov. Chris Gregoire readies to release her 2009 budget proposal and the state Legislature prepares to convene in January.

A print out of potential budget cuts added to a 13 percent budget decrease, amounting to nearly $1.3 million. The total operating budget for the 2008-2009 school year is about $9.7 million.

“We’ll just have to sit down and put some things on the table,” Sheldon said.

Budget cuts could impact all-day kindergarten, I-728 funds and levy equalization funds.

Sheldon said state retirement funds could also be impacted by budget cuts, forcing school districts to pay more.

Staffing comprises 85 percent of the district’s operating budget and could also be impacted by budget cuts.

The remaining 15 percent of the budget funds other needs, including heat, electricity, textbooks, supplies, materials, technology, transportation and maintenance, Sheldon said.

“So there’s not a lot to cut, except for staffing,” she said.

Classified positions would be eliminated by seniority. Newer employees would be most vulnerable to losing their jobs.

Certified staff positions would be prioritized differently because of the need to keep highly qualified teachers, Sheldon said.

A situation may arise, for example, where a math position needs to be filled and a teacher who has been at the district longer is not qualified to teach math, she said.

Sheldon noted some school districts are taking away extracurricular activities, field trips and travel to offset the budget.

Six certified staff positions are supported with I-728 funds, and 1.5 certified staff positions are supported with all-day kindergarten funds.

Sheldon said maintaining a fund balance is important for payroll purposes, since the district receives different amounts of money from the government each month.

Most school districts try to maintain a balance of about 5 percent, Sheldon said. Smaller school districts try to maintain a bigger balance, she said.

“It would be fiscally irresponsible to use our fund balance totally, to try to offset this,” she said.

According to the state Office of Fiscal Management’s November revenue forecast, revenue is expected to decrease by $1.43 billion statewide during the 2009 to 2011 biennium. The total projected revenue for the biennium is about $30 billion.