Budget 2011

The priorities in our budget are based upon the four focus areas that came out of my Entry Plan Listening and Learning, which we have been processing openly throughout this school year. In summary, the highlights are:

• Early Childhood: Offering full-time kindergarten for this fall, working with our community partners and staff for curriculum alignment starting in preschool through grade three, and providing our elementary program with specialists.
• System Support for Teaching and Learning: Opening Cordata and Whatcom, having Teachers or Principals on Special Assignment (TOSA or POSA) to support curriculum development and alignment, implementing a K-5 literacy adoption, continuing our AVID program, providing technology support to staff through a Director of Educational Technology (funded by our technology levy), and supporting students’ specific needs through programs such as English Language Learners, Highly Capable Learners, Special Education and Title I.

• Secondary Innovation and Flexibility: Expanding online learning to year-round, coordinating opportunities for students to attend the Northwest Career and Technical Academy and for career/technical education, supporting and growing Options High School, implementing flexible start/end times and improved school schedules, and coordinating support for student success to improve our graduation rate.
• One Schoolhouse: Providing specialized support to schools such as counselors at Title I schools, leadership team support and bilingual staffing for such schools as Cordata, Shuksan and Squalicum; coordinating first day school supplies for elementary schools; and partnering with outside agencies such as the Bellingham Police Department, Bellingham Public School Foundation, Communities in Schools and others to support students.

Our list of needs is long and this budget, by no stretch, takes care of everything we need to do for students. However, I thank staff and our community for helping me better understand the needs through this process so that we could prioritize what we can do now and in the future.

Because of prudent financial management, the hard decisions and millions of dollars in cuts this district has made in the past, we are now in a position to meet a limited number of needs as highlighted above, and plan to sustain them with the renewal of our regular levy next winter. We will need to maintain a strong fund balance or reserves to see us through any additional downturns in the economy or future federal and state cuts.

For this budget, we will be able to make some progress with our priorities and offset some, but not all of the losses dealt to us by the state regarding class size and salaries.

As previously shared, our state and federal funding for a variety of certificated positions for next school year will be reduced. We are losing our Initiative 728 (I-728) funds to reduce K-12 class size, some additional state funds used to reduce K-4 class size, and ARRA federal stimulus funding is ending. This is a total loss of approximately $4 million. Thankfully, we have the additional support of our temporary supplemental levy of $2.5 million to help us meet program needs and offset part of these losses. Class sizes will increase for next year by approximately 2-3 students, instead of 4-5 per class. Pending unknowns related to staff compensation, we met again last week with principals to finalize staffing and our schools are working on many placements this week.

Recently, all of our labor association and non-represented staff leaders met with me as a group to review this information and our budget priorities.

We will need to work together with our leaders through negotiations or other conversations to address the reductions in state funding for salaries. The state will give us 1.9 percent less in compensation next school year for certificated staff, plus will continue to not fund the Learning Improvement Days (LID) that our district has been back-filling with additional paid days. For administrators, we will receive 3 percent less funding and for classified staff, we will receive 1.9 percent less. The Washington State School Directors Association (WSSDA) originally reported that there would be an exemption for classified staff making less than $30,000 per year. Unfortunately, this was not accurately reported and this exemption did not make it into the final legislation. Instead, we will be working closely with our labor groups to determine how these reductions in state revenue will be addressed. As I shared with our labor leaders, salary reductions are difficult because I greatly value the work of all our employees.

Thank you,

Greg Baker