As the July 24 deadline for budget completion for the 2008-2009 school year looms, the Orcas Island School District (OISD) Board sharpened their pencils and exchanged proposals for budget cuts at their meeting on July 7, and by the end of the evening, they’d whittled $210,000 from the proposed budget deficit.

Business Manager Ben Thomas reviewed the Northwest Educational Service District’s (ESD) response to the draft budget reduction recommendations that the Budget Advisory Committee (BAC) had presented at the June 16 board meeting. The BAC’s cuts, which were presented in 29 pages of documentation, amounted to $365,000 . The ESD “strongly recommends budget assumptions and projections be based upon full year expenditure levels (ex: 2006-07 Expenditures versus 2007-08 Year-to-Date) as this has proven to be more reliable in K-12 budgeting.”

The ESD delineated their response to each line item in the BAC recommendations, and accepted recommendations totaling $141,862. However, the ESD recommended that $110,004 of the reduced amount be placed in specific contingency funds, so that the net reduction against the deficit is $31,860.

The projected deficit, when first announced on April 30, was $667,000. Reductions of 7.7 Full Time Equivalent (FTEs) were announced on May 7. As of July 7, after proposed (RIFs) and other ESD and BAC recommendations for reduction were calculated in the budget formulation, there remained a $159,943 deficit.

Board Member Keith Whitaker, who is the Board’s representative to the FAC, stated the “philosophical” difference between what he described as the ESD’s “more conservative” figures based on budget history and the FAC’s “more accurate” figures based on actual expenditures in 2006-07 and 2007-08. (The BAC received figures on actual expenditures through April 2008).

Board Member Scott Lancaster asked if the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) would approve a budget “if the $110,000 contingency [funds] were removed” and added “We’re gambling with our fund balance.”

Board Member Tony Ghazel reiterated his proposal that a nine percent reduction in each department’s budget was the “cleaner, fairer and more equitable way” to approach budget cuts, and the Board decided to ask the BAC to calculate the percentages of the cuts to each activity they’d recommended, based on 25 “activity codes” or departments. These activity codes include departments such as information systems, utilities, grounds maintenance, teaching, extracurricular, food services, Superintendent’s office and business office.

Ghazel acknowledged that some activities could not be reduced, such as utilities, but wanted to add those figures back in after other areas had been reduced by at least nine percent.

Board Member Charlie Glasser encouraged the board to take a multi-layered approach and look at the activities code review, take $78,000 from the contingency fund, and to consider closing the library and eliminating snow routes. “The point is getting closer to zero,” Glasser said.

At Monday’s meeting, Board President Janet Brownell led the group in proposing the following cuts:

$7,000: Technology

$51,000: Librarian (Library use would be supervised by teachers for their classes)

$25,000: Coaches (With funds expected from the Associated Student Body fund or from the community).

$5,000: Transportation in snow routes

$78,000: Contingency fund reduction

The total reductions came to $166,000. Once the $44,000 dedicated by the Orcas Island Education Foundation (OIEF) funds (some tagged for specific activities) was applied to the $159,943 deficit that remained as of July 7, the District’s budget ended in the plus side at $50,000.

However, these numbers are based on the staff cuts amounting to 7.7 FTE, announced last month. The board’s priorities to retain teachers and other staff who’ve been RIF’d (notified that they’ve been “reduced in force,” or had their hours cut), while formulating a balanced budget, was apparent throughout the meeting.

Brownell stated that the budget would increase by $323,000 if all the RIF’d positions were reinstated. With the net gain of $50,000 that they’d achieved by the above cuts, the Board is now focused on finding or raising $273,000 to reinstate staff.

Lancaster brought up that the school district has 140 less students than they did seven years ago, “with the same amount of staff.”

Whitaker agreed that it is apparent some RIFs are inevitable.

Glasser said, “We’re taking it in steps, and walking it carefully. It’s a difficult process, but we’re all on the same page.

The board met again on Tuesday, July 15. The actions taken at that meeting will be reported online at www.islandssounder.com