The Renton School District focused on keeping next year’s $4.3 million in cuts as far from the classroom as possible, eliminating 15 support staff and 10 teacher positions.
The cuts appeared as a smattering across next year’s proposed $136 million budget, from reducing supplies and two janitor positions to the entire golf program.
“It’s been a long journey and difficult, difficult decisions,” said Superintendent Mary Alice Heuschel at a study session April 28.
While the teacher positions will be eliminated through attrition, five people in the administrative staff will lose their jobs.
“We are trying to keep it as far away from the classroom as possible,” said Rich Moore, assistant superintendent of business. “I can’t think of anything that’s really going to jump out at people.”
About $940,000 was cut from the about $20 million special education budget, which includes three non-classroom staff positions and 25 percent of the supplies budget.
By federal law, the special education budget has to grow annually, but that was postponed for this year alone, Moore said.
“It’s kind of a weird law,” he said. “It really is an opportunity to reset services for that program.”
The program is supposed to be funded primarily through state and federal funding with about 15 to 20 percent from local levies, he said. “Most districts spend excess of that.”
About 35 percent of the district’s levy money goes to special education, which supports about 1,800 students.
The district provided $500,000 to open the Honey Dew Elementary building for kindergarten classes from nearby schools.
The decision to use the building isn’t final, but it’s likely some schools will need the space, said Susan Mather, the chief academic officer of elementary education, at the meeting.
The district is proposing waiting until 2011-2012 to open the entire school.
The district didn’t include decisions about the Lindbergh High School swimming pool in this draft. Community members have to raise about $60,000 before the end of June to keep it open.
The hope is to make the pool self-sustaining. The district already decided to cut the pool manager position, Moore said. “We’ll be raising the participation fees for swimming lessons beginning this summer.”
The Washington state Legislature cut all remaining funding for a voter-passed initiative, I-728, to reduce classroom sizes. It was about $1.3 million for the district.
They also reduced the amount of money for the K-4 staffing ratio by about $940,000.
The news isn’t all bad. The district expects to receive an additional $600,000 from local levy collection and $500,000 from increased enrollment. And the governor’s original state budget would have meant a $6.1 million gap in the district’s budget.
The Board of Directors won’t vote to approve the budget until August. The Legislature could continue to tweak the numbers over the coming months, Moore said.
The budget was made with input from three community meetings and an online survey.
“All of those pieces were taken into consideration,” Heuschel said.
Three more public meetings will be held to discuss this proposal. They’re all scheduled at 7 p.m., May 10 at Lindbergh High School, May 13 at Hazen and May 17 at Renton.
