School board balances budget

When the Orcas Island School District (OISD) board met on Thursday, July 24, their immediate task was “to pass a budget that’s in compliance with state laws,” as Board Member Charlie Glasser said. He added that the board would meet at a later time on how to mitigate the 4.4 full-time equivalent (FTE) reductions that remain in the 2008-2009 budget.

That meeting will take place on Aug. 1 at noon in the school library and is open to the public.

But before that, Governor Chris Gregoire is sending three state rural-school district experts to meet with the OISD and the public at 11 a.m. on July 31. After talking to several school board members on her visit to Orcas Island on July 5, Gregoire had promised to address the school-funding situation here.

At the July 24 meeting, the board received copies of letters reinstating teacher Marta Branch’s contract to a 1.0 FTE, with the OASIS High School as her assignment, teacher Linda Sullivan’s contract to 1.0 FTE, with .6 FTE assigned to Special Ed, and .4 FTE assigned to Elementary ALE, and teacher Kari Schuh’s contract to .8 FTE, with half her assignment to be Special Education, and the other half to be Career Technology Education.

Thomas presented and reviewed the final, 19-page draft of the school budget, and the OISD board unanimously adopted the resolution setting the 2008-2009 fiscal budget at $5,520,640 for the General Fund. The General Fund ending balance is projected to be $185,000 at the close of this school year, with a target of $237,099 by Aug. 31, 2009. The General Fund is up from $17,997 in Aug. 2006 (For information about the other Funds, go to www.islandssounder.com.)

Bob Connell, OISD parent, asked about the final impact of the Budget Advisory Committee’s (BAC) impact. Overall, Business Manager Ben Thomas said, $150,000 had been reduced from the budget, adding that some of the reductions were “district-driven, some BAC-driven, and some Board-driven.” Connell commented that the BAC’s work had reduced about a quarter of the original deficit.

Board Member Tony Ghazel commented that he was satisfied that his overall intent to reduce the budget nine percent (from $6.1 million to $5.5 million) had been addressed, “Thanks to the help of the BAC group in looking at things we haven’t looked at before. Their work will help for many years to come,” he said. “We’re in a good place.”

Board President Janet Brownell said that she hopes the “BAC will remain a vital component in this district.”

Glasser also praised the “spectacular work of the BAC – really bright people who did tremendous work that’s beneficial to every kid in school, the people who work here and the whole community.” Glasser singled out Board Member Keith Whitaker’s work, as OISD Board representative to the BAC.

For his part, Whitaker said he’d taken “mostly an observance role,” and thanked BAC Chair Steve Diepenbrock, who “drove us and did a fabulous job.”

Thomas said that the BAC had worked extremely hard, and that he, Thomas, was “politically in the middle,” but that the BAC and he had been able to work “very well collaboratively.” He said that when the Budget Development calendar is formulated next year, “we can talk about how the BAC is part of the process.”

Brownell recollected that she had been on the OISD board about five years ago, and only received budget numbers “15 minutes before they had to be finalized, and they were only five line items. We’ve progressed so far from that day.”

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