Mount Baker School District to avoid major budget cuts

Plans for early childhood center will be delayed

KIRA MILLAGE

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The Mount Baker School District will avoid major budget cuts for the 2008-09 school year, but plans for expanding the early childhood center will be delayed.

About $428,000 earmarked for improvements to the early childhood center were transferred from the capital projects fund into the general fund, giving the district the financial boost it needed to avoid major staff and program reductions, Superintendent Richard Gantman said.

The district had been putting some of its funds received through I-728 � an initiative that gives districts money to help students reach standards � into the capital projects fund for changes to the early childhood center.

BUDGET AT A GLANCE
Basic education: $10.5M
Special education: $2.3M
Vocational education: $813,000
Other education: $3M
Community services: $0
Districtwide support: $3M
Transportation: $1.5M
Food service: $1.1M

School districts can spend I-728 funds in several ways, including reducing class sizes or improving early childhood education. �We�re seeing a budget that was balanced on the capital projects fund,� Gantman said. �We were able to offset a huge deficit because we had been planning to spend that money on facility, but we needed to spend it on program.�

The school board approved the $22.3 million budget Thursday night, July 31. Even with the capital project fund money, the district will use about $78,500 from reserves.

District officials estimate about $1.7 million, or about 7.7 percent of general fund expenditures, will be left in the general fund at the end of the school year.

Enrollment is expected to continue its multi-year decline, with just more than the equivalent of 2,000 full-time students, a drop of about 60 students from last year�s budget.

�People aren�t moving here the way they were before,� Gantman said.

�I think people are choosing to live closer to town because it�s a lifestyle choice, and I think some may have made an economic choice because it might have been financially easier to live closer to town,� he said.

Because of enrollment, the number of staff is declining slightly, but reductions were handled through attrition, Gantman said. Existing staff will have some role adjustments, but not reductions in hours.

And while programs aren�t being cut, the way some are offered may change. For example, the Highly Capable Learners program, which the state provides some funding for, will be offered in a modified way that brings expenses closer to the revenue stream, Gantman said.

Details on the changes haven�t been finalized.

�That�s difficult, it�s heart wrenching,� Gantman said. �Staff work so hard to develop the models we have and then we�re asking them to do more with less.�

The district managed to avoid major cuts this year, but Gantman said they won�t be able to do the same thing next year. Because of that, the district will start planning for the 2009-10 budget this fall.

�We�ve been so financially conservative for the past decade that we�ve been able to make reductions slowly and in a manner that student experience has been less affected,� he said.

�But unless the economy and public school funding takes a turn for the better in the immediate future, we will be right along with many other districts in the state with some critical decisions next year,� he said.