School budget would lean on $6 million in reserves

By Sanjay Bhatt
Seattle Times staff reporter

Superintendent Raj Manhas calls funding "below optimal."

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most e-mailed articles

Neither ticket won. But the school-district finance director's gesture shows just how dire he thinks the district's financial picture is. Nielsen and Superintendent Raj Manhas will formally propose a 2004-05 budget today that drains the district's savings account, curbs central-office spending and reallocates more local and state money to school classrooms. The $443.7 million general-operations budget, which is a $6.7 million increase over this year's adopted budget, provides for 10 new literacy coaches and $200,000 for an Office of Equity and Race Relations and restores the number of teacher substitutes to 2002-03 levels.

But the district is postponing major disruptions at schools by using nearly $6 million in one-time reserves — and that could mean cuts next year if it doesn't receive higher than anticipated revenue.

"Central departments, as well as schools, are operating at below-optimal funding levels," Manhas wrote in the budget's introduction. "The future of our students and the financial survival of our system depend on the decisions we make during the next year."

District officials have been discussing whether to make major structural changes to the city's school system, such as closing some small schools and limiting school-assignment choices. Such changes, the theory goes, would produce millions of dollars in savings that could be channeled into providing teacher pay to compete with suburban districts, reducing class size and supporting students with greater needs.

In two weeks, the School Board will hold a two-day retreat during which it could reach consensus on a five-year plan that would aim to close the achievement gap, improve the effectiveness and relevancy of instruction, build leadership among the staff and manage resources in a manner that is equitable and sustainable.

The board will hold a June 23 public hearing on the budget and vote on it July 7. At the same time, it will vote on several other budget-related measures: the allocation of $13 million in Initiative 728 class-size reduction funds, the allocation of $3.2 million from the state Learning Assistance Program and the transfer of money from reserves into the general operating budget.

"There really aren't any surprises in here," Nielsen said yesterday in a budget briefing. Later he said, "This budget reflects our state's financial challenges and the decisions we have made over many years on how we choose to spend money," such as operating many small schools and offering districtwide busing under a school-choice plan.

The operations budget draws its support from $82.6 million in grants and $361.1 million in state and local revenue. It includes a $474,308 reserve to address uncertainties, including unexpected swings in fall enrollment.

To balance the spending plan, the district proposes to cut $3.5 million from central-department budgets. Nearly all schools would lose in-house and site-based central staff members because of diminishing or expiring grants. School-based staff would be reduced by about 47.8 jobs and centrally based staff by 44.9.

Funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant, which expires next year, will fall from $4.8 million this year to $1.5 million next year. A federal Safe Schools grant will decline by $2 million, eliminating the equivalent of 36.5 full-time School Services positions.

The district will start advertising Monday for a director of equity and race relations, Chief Academic Officer Steve Wilson said earlier this week. Last month, on the anniversary of the landmark desegregation case Brown v. Board of Education, the School Board voted to commit the district to eradicating what it called institutional racism.

In a written statement, the board didn't put a price tag on that: "While unable at this time to quantify the resources necessary to accomplish this goal, we anticipate a major shift in the way existing resources — including staff time, materials, supplies, and money — are utilized, now and in the years to come."

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

E-mail this article

Print this article

Search archive

More local news headlines...