Schools at all levels prepare for cuts

A bleak picture is now showing at a school or university near you.

School boards have begun approving plans to cut jobs, textbooks, training and other costs as the sour economy seeps into the classroom. The University of Washington is mulling record cuts and steep tuition hikes. Closer to home, Everett and Edmonds community colleges also plan to chop services and raise tuition.

The Everett School Board on Tuesday adopted a proposal that will slash spending by $7.71 million -- roughly 4 percent -- for the next school year. That will include nearly 30 teachers and seven central office administrators. The district has around 1,000 teachers.

Hours will be cut for classroom aides and layoffs are in store for more than 20 classified employees, such as custodians and food service workers.

"We are going to be doing less with less," said Karst Brandsma, Everett's interim superintendent.

At Edmonds, district leaders are considering cutting around $10 million, and already have decided to close two elementary schools to save an additional $1.4 million. Preliminary plans call for 53 teachers to be laid off, but because 38 plan to retire or resign, many of those jobs may be saved, district spokeswoman DJ Jakala said.

Employees make up about 85 percent of school districts' spending, but the cost cutting reaches far beyond personnel. Everett, for instance, will save nearly $950,000 by deferring buying textbooks and trimming back after-school learning programs.

"The budget cutting is unprecedented in my time on the board," said Sue Cooper, who has served for nearly a quarter of a century.

Families will be expected to chip in more as well. Everett will increase lunch prices by 40 cents and start charging kids fees to play on school sports teams.

In Edmonds, the school board is considering cutting fifth-grade band, boosting class size and asking players on sports teams to find their own transportation to games.

Many school districts had been waiting until last weekend to find out how much the Legislature would cut in education funding. State lawmakers had a $9 billion budget hole. They cut about $800 million over the next two years in funding for K-12.

State budget writers say the average cut will amount to about 2.6 percent of what the state provides to school districts. Schools also rely on federal money and local voter-approved levies.

Many districts also are predicting enrollment losses for next fall. Schools are paid about $5,200 from the state for each student they teach. Stanwood expects to lose more than 200 students, a drop that would cost the district more than $1 million.

Cutbacks mean that there will be room for around 3,000 fewer students at the state's colleges and universities next year. Tuition is expected to jump by 7 percent at community and technical colleges, and 14 percent at four-year universities in each of the next two years.

The Legislature cut the University of Washington's budget by 26 percent -- "by far the largest reduction in state support to a flagship university by any state in the nation," University President Mark Emmert wrote in a letter to staff.

Unlike the UW, where layoffs seem unavoidable, administrators at Edmonds Community College hope to avoid handing out pink slips. Facing a $3.5 million budget cut over the next three years, EdCC administrators already have started leaving positions vacant and have found room for computer and health classes that used to be housed in a leased building off campus.

More classroom crowding, more online classes and program cuts also are possible, said Kevin McKay, interim vice president of finance and operations.

"It's 'How do we keep the lights on?'" he said. "It's 'How do we continue to serve as many students as we can possibly serve despite the cuts? How we can compensate for loss of revenue at a time when demand for our services are highest?'"

Grade schools took the biggest hit, losing roughly $600 million, when the Legislature trimmed money that voters approved in 2000 to reduce class sizes and improve education.

Everett School Board member Ed Petersen said the voter-approved money has been critical over the past five years in helping the district improve graduation rates. The percentage of high school seniors graduating on time in 2008 was 80 percent - a big gain from 2003, which was about 55 percent.

State law requires districts to notify teachers by May 15 if they will have a job in the fall.

Districts likely will send out some notices to teachers who may be hired back when the financial picture becomes clearer. However, Everett is not expecting as many retirements and resignations as it has had in recent years -- an indicator of the tight job market and soft economy.

On average over the past four years, for instance, there were 24 leaves of absence, 25 retirements and 37 resignations by the end of the school year. So far this year, Everett has had 12 leaves of absence, four retirements and five resignations.

The Stanwood School Board reviewed a reduction plan Thursday that included more than 23 teachers, nine classified employees and two administrators.