No layoffs of White Salmon Valley School District classified employees will take place during the 2003-04 school year.
That's the consensus that emerged during last Thursday's school board work session at the district's administrative office in the Park Center.
The work session served as an opportunity for Superintendent Dale Palmer to brief board members on the district's financial situation. During a PowerPoint presentation, Palmer and district business manager Terry Anderson touched on everything from a shrinking fund balance to increasing non-employee related costs to declining enrollment, and how those things affect district finances.
The bottom line for 2003-04 is that the district hopes to close the books next Aug. 31 with an estimated reserve fund balance of $232,722. When the school year began, the reserve fund balance stood at $401,081.
Due to an unanticipated drop in enrollment, the district stands to lose $150,000 in Basic Education revenue from the state.
To offset a total budget shortfall of $168,359, the district will have to use that much of its unrestricted reserve fund to balance a $9.522 million budget.
What were the alternatives?
School board members could have directed Palmer to take some Draconian steps to balance the budget and bring the ending fund balance more in line with their mission statement target of five percent.
They could have required him to single out a number of classified personnel to receive pink slips and slash spending for, and possibly eliminate some, extracurricular activities.
None of them, however, felt laying off classified staff this far into the school year was fair or necessary.
"I have a hard time saying `Sorry, we made a mistake and have to let you go,'" board chairman Eric Shrum said in regards to laying off classified staff. "Just going out and sharpening up the ax and letting it fall ... I can't do that."
Rather, board members said they preferred to stay the course and keep a tight rein on expenditures.
"We should look at everything else (non-personnel) to see where we can achieve savings now and at those areas where we can save money next year," said board member Tom Stevenson.
Whatever savings Palmer can wring from the budget from now until June probably won't amount to much, given that he already had reduced spending by $252,000 and augmented revenues by doubling athletics user fees.
Palmer said he thought that would be enough.
"Those are the cuts we made going into this year and lo and behold the kids didn't show up," Palmer explained.
So, just to stay even the rest of the way, the district will have to dip into its reserve fund.
"I don't like it (the drawdown of the reserve fund), but I think we can live with it and deal with it next year," Shrum opined.
The outlook for the 2004-05 school year is grim. Palmer has projected a further decline in enrollment, based on historical data, from 1,171 at the end of this year to 1,137 at the start of the next.
Without a major overhaul of its budget, the district would have to spend $371,000 in reserves next year to maintain its current levels of employment, services, and programs. Maintaining the status quo, Palmer pointed out, isn't an option.
"I've said that if it looks like we're going to go into 2004-2005 with 1,137 kids, we will RIF five and a half teachers. We'll need to," he said. "And if more kids show up in September, we can always hire teachers back."
An alternative to laying off teachers could rest with the board's upcoming decision on the maintenance and operations replacement levy.
The board plans to hold another workshop in December, well in advance of its regular monthly meeting, to hear the recommendations of the district's three building principals and to discuss its levy options.
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