The summer is winding down and teachers and administrators are heading back to their classrooms in anticipation of the beginning of a new school year. This fall when students step back onto buses and walk onto school grounds they might notice a few changes, but likely their parents and the community will see the costs of last spring’s legislative budget cuts the most.
In the Issaquah School District, facing a $7.3 million budget shortfall, there will be fewer classified staff overall, to help teachers, answer phones and do the basic custodian duties like vacuuming.
“Because we are trying to stay as slim as possible in non-classroom staffing, parents might notice the tradeoffs,” said Sara Niegowski, the district’s executive director of communication. “Their phone calls might not be answered as quickly because of trimmed secretarial hours, facilities might not be vacuumed as frequently because of reduced custodial hours, students on activity runs might be dropped off at consolidated, central stops, teachers will have less support from trained peer experts and educational assistants and central administrative support to buildings and the community will be have to be prioritized because positions have been cut.”
Last year the district had 595 full time equivalent (FTE) positions for classified staff. This year the district cut that number by 3.7 percent for 573.2 FTE at 24 schools and various administrative buildings. The cuts also mean fewer teachers overall; a decrease of 3.5 percent for the 2009-10 school year. Last year the district employed 992.8 FTE certificated staff, but this year only 957.9 FTE will be available at schools for students. Overall, the district saw a 3.6 percent decrease in staff district wide.
Despite the overarching pinch Issaquah’s budget is feeling, staff and the administration has worked to make the impacts as unnoticeable to students as possible.
“In terms of our educational program, we hope that the impact is minimal. Our philosophy has been to preserve the entire educational experience for students. Because actual class sizes are based on many factors, the one-student-ratio increase may or may not be distinguishable fact a class or building level,” said Niegowski. She added that principals have the ability to work with the teachers to create the best instructional practices for students.
Those protections to shield students from what might be perceived as a lesser education system does come at a price. The district’s proposed 2009-10 budget totals $149.6 million, down from $151.6 million last year. Under the current proposal the district expects a $2.2 million cut to non-classroom items, such as reductions in the central administration staff and building staff, as well as custodians and maintenance. Another $5 million was taken from the budget by increasing class size ratios by one student in each class in all grades from K-12. The district held the annual budget public hearing during a school board meeting on Wednesday, giving the community and families a chance to make comments on the proposed budget. The 2009-20 budget is expected to be adopted by the board at the Aug. 26 meeting. Niegowski added the district was able to create some fiscal savings in pension contribution rates for staff as allowed this year by the state legislature, but she said while this is a good fix for the short term, it will quickly catch up with the district and create a major deficit. Those changes mean an overextended system.
“We have taken a significant financial hit, but we are going to open schools in September and strive to keep providing the same high quality service so that students don’t feel the impact. We have mask the pain as much as possible. However, our system will be tremendously strained,” said Niegowski. The state’s new, more stringent educational standards will have to be met by fewer teachers and staff who can make it happen.
“The most disheartening aspect is that our state has been studying the true cost of modern basic education, and we are already billions of dollars short of that measure. So when we take a step backward – less education funding – we are moving away from the progress we need to make to prepare students. Instead of creative thinking about how to support all students through professional development or targeted programs, we have to think about how to scrape by to provide the same levels of service as the year before,” she said.
On Wednesday, Sept. 2 students will return and what they see might not appear different on the surface, but behind the scenes a strained educational system will try to keep up with the demands of providing tomorrow’s adults with the tools they need to make an impact on the world.
