School cuts get one more look

olympia: Board adds budget study session after hearing public pleas to keep P.E., music specialists

VENICE BUHAIN; The Olympian | • Published June 19, 2009

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OLYMPIA – The Olympia School Board will take another look at a suggested 2009-10 budget that includes an $87.4 million general fund during a study session Monday, the day before the board had been scheduled to adopt it.

The district added the new study session date Thursday, a day after a public hearing at which 41 parents, students and teachers gave their impressions and made arguments for the preservation of programs. No public testimony will be taken at Monday’s study session.

On Tuesday, the board is scheduled to vote on a budget with an $87.4 million general fund. Earlier this month, board members proposed changes to district Superintendent Bill Lahmann’s budget proposal.

Lahmann’s proposal includes $1.9 million in cuts and relies on spending about $815,000 from the district’s reserves, leaving $5.2 million, or 6.2 percent, in reserve. The board also has suggested 14 changes to the budget proposal. Those changes would restore $245,000 of the suggested cuts and also cut about $516,000 in programs that are preserved or new in Lahmann’s proposal.

Many parents came to speak about the biggest of the newly proposed cuts, a $261,000 cut of kindergarten through third-grade music and physical education specialists. Those classes would be reassigned to classroom teachers, and those specialists would be reassigned to other positions. It would not affect band, choir or orchestra in fourth or fifth grade.

Centennial Elementary School parent Brad Ellis asked the board to reconsider that proposal, saying the classroom teachers do not have the same expertise and focus in those areas.

“It’s very unfortunate that things need to be weighed against each other,” he said.

Centennial parent Becky Cottrell praised P.E. and music teacher Jana Gedde, and asked the district to preserve the programs for the primary grades.

“It is such a vital part of our children’s education,” she said.

Lahmann’s proposal includes furloughs in pay and workdays for district administrators, eliminating high school gymnastics, cutting the drill team and boys swimming, changing middle school sports, cutting stipends for certain school duties, reducing building-supply budgets and cutting the annual fifth-grade trip to the Cispus Environmental Learning Center in Randle.

The board’s proposed amendments include bringing back gymnastics, drill team and boys swimming; not implementing administration furloughs; and restoring the outdoors school trip to Cispus.

Assistant superintendent of fiscal and operations Jim Crawford said that because the proposed budget relies on the district’s reserves, it is not balanced.

“It is not a long-term sustainable budget,” he told the board and the public just before the public hearing began.

Several parents and a student suggested that the district should use more of the reserves to aim for a lower ending fund balance.

The board policy states that the district should aim for a reserve of between 5 percent and 10 percent. The document says the policy was adopted in 1997, and it has been changed only to amend the policy number. Various board members in the past have discussed lowering that reserve to between 3.5 percent and 5 percent, but no formal action ever has been taken, district spokesman Peter Rex said.

The work session is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday at the district board room, 1113 Legion Way S.E., Olympia.

Venice Buhain: 360-754-5445

vbuhain@theolympian.com

www.theolympian.com/edblog