Meridian schools make cuts but no teachers laid off

KIRA MILLAGE - THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

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LAUREL - The Meridian School District will likely avoid laying off teachers as part of proposed budget cuts for the 2009-10 school year.

At a special school board meeting Thursday, April 30, the Meridian School Board approved a plan proposed by Superintendent Tim Yeomans to reduce next year's budget by about $613,000.

With five retirements and by shifting some people to different buildings, Yeomans said no certificated teachers will lose their jobs. There will be a reduction in classified staffing, which are generally people employed as aides or in nonteaching positions, by about the equivalent of five full-time positions, but there may be opportunities for rehire this summer as the district budget is finalized.

Financial difficulties aren't new for Meridian: The district cut about $580,000 and nine positions for the 2008-09 school year. The new cuts will bring the district to over $1 million during the past two years. The 2008-09 budget included about $15 million in expenditures.

"If this is not the leanest operation going, I think this is the leanest operation keeping the goals of the board in mind," Yeomans told the board. "This is really just a continuation of what we did last year."

Other budget trims include reducing counseling services by the equivalent of one full-time position spread across the district, replacing some registered nursing hours with a nonregistered nurse, and eliminating the career counselor position at the high school, with hopes of bringing it back.

There also will be reductions to the transportation and maintenance budgets and the elimination of a half-time administrator position at the district office, leaving only two district administrators.

But with these proposed cuts, most students won't notice any difference, Yeomans told the board.

Yeomans' plan also includes charging fees for athletics. Each high school sport would cost $100, and middle school sports would cost $40 for the first, $30 for the second and so on. There would be a cap of $400 per year per family.

In all, Yeomans' plan includes cuts of $55,000 from districtwide expenditures, $25,000 from nursing, $95,000 from certificated counseling, $165,000 in teaching staff, $52,000 from special programs, $100,000 in classified support staff, $58,000 in classified counseling and about $63,000 from co-curricular activities and transportation.