Questions, answers, discussion at MLSD community forum

MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake School District Superintendent Carol Lewis answered questions about school operations in the wake of severe budget cuts, technology, teachers responding to challenges in the classroom and billing during a wide-ranging question and answer forum Thursday. 

It's part of a series of forums scheduled for December and January leading up to, among other things, an educational programs and operations levy request that will go out to MLSD voters Feb. 11. The levy questions and discussion will be the subject of a separate story. 

A second forum is scheduled for 6 to 7 p.m. Monday at the district’s main office, called the learning services center, 1620 S. Pioneer Way.  

District voters rejected a two-year EP&O levy earlier this year, which was followed by the discovery that accounting errors led to the draining of the district’s reserve funds. Moses Lake School Board member Paul Hill said the accounting errors accounted for about 50% of the district’s funding shortfall.  

The resulting budget shortfall led the district to eliminate about 100 teaching positions and about 85 non-teaching positions, also known as classified staff. 

In answer to a question about the availability of technology district-wide, Lewis said the staff cuts affected student access to computers. 

“Basically, we had to reduce our technology staff by a huge amount, and with that came the need to remove a lot of our Chromebook access for our students,” Lewis said. “Because you have to have staff to maintain all of that technology if you’re going to have it.”  

Previously fifth graders, junior high and high school students were issued school computers but that’s not possible with the technology staff cuts, Lewis said. She was asked how the reduction in computer access was affecting students, since a lot of classroom tasks, like homework assignments, had moved online. 

“I’m not going to lie – it has affected our students’ ability to access everything that they need. And it’s one of the things that’s top of mind when we’re able to restore some things, particularly for our high school students,” Lewis said. 

“It’s also affected our teachers, the way they teach – super-interesting, (although) when you think about it, this makes complete sense. Our veteran teachers, they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, we got this. I taught with a chalkboard.’ Our newer teachers, though, they were the ones that really needed some help from those veteran teachers. How do I teach without a computer?” she said. 

The budget shortfall meant that some projects proposed by building administrators had to be deferred, Lewis said, answering a question about upgrades to an elementary school lunchroom. Along with projects like the lunchroom, the budget cuts affected most school operations. Lewis used the example of custodial staff.  

“Some of the things that have been going on – our buildings are being cleaned by teachers, by principals. Our elementary principals have learned how to drive the Zamboni thing to clean the floors. Our high school principal, she got some extra vacuums and she’s like, ‘Here you guys go.’ (Teachers and administrators) are vacuuming their floors and things like that,” Lewis said.  

“I go and visit a school and the principal (says), ‘You can meet me in the cafeteria because I’m mopping the floor right now, and who’s going to take the trash out?’” she added. 

Having principals mop floors and teachers dump the trash is not, in her opinion, the most efficient use of MLSD staff, she said.  

“That is very worthy work, but it’s not what we’re paying our teachers and principals to be doing,” Lewis said.  

A question about transporting children to First Grade Farm Day led to a discussion about school financing, and why it seems to take so long for things to happen. 

School parent support organizations paid for the transportation from the schools out to the Grant County Fairgrounds. The trip was in mid-October, and various school organizations had yet to receive an invoice as of early December. 

“Just know that everything in a school district (runs) on a month calendar, so everything is going to be delayed at least a month. So, while it seems like you would get it right away, things happen kind of slowly, just because of the way the state funds us and things like that,” Lewis said. 

That time lag gave the impression over the summer the district was still spending money when in fact it wasn’t, she said. 

“When we did our spending freeze in May and really froze everything all summer, it was kind of like a slow turnover of the engine,” she said. “The end of August was when we finally saw the freeze happening. Board members kept saying, ‘Why are we still getting bills for all these things?’ Because you got the bill in June for (an expenditure) in February.”  

The district has about $12 million in the Grant County treasury at the beginning of December, she said. The target for reserves set by the Moses Lake School Board is 12.5% of the district budget, which Lewis estimated equates to about $16 to $17 million. 

The reserves are needed because the amount of money allocated to the district by the state changes from month to month, she said. Districts may have to use some of the reserves to pay expenses, at least temporarily. Lewis estimated the MLSD payroll is between $8 to $10 million per month. 

The experience of the last year has led to changes in the way board members and district officials review expenses, she said. 

“We have all those financial documents posted on our district website. Anybody in the public can see how our money is being spent. We also have two board members coming in every two weeks (to review) accounts payable before it ever goes to the board,” Lewis said. “We are having very detailed budget status reports presented to our school board each month, which is a normal expectation for a school district, (but) that hadn’t necessarily been happening much previously, and now it is.”