Edmonds schools’ budget looks up

By Pamela Brice

For the Herald

EDMONDS — The Edmonds School Board has approved a plan to lay off three part-time instructors to deal with budget shortfalls for the coming year.

All three instructors work in career and technical education.

The number is down from an earlier proposal to cut five part-time positions.

"This reduction is closer to normal program changes that occur each year," Superintendent Wayne Robertson told the board.

State law requires that school districts considering layoffs notify teachers by May 15.

The board is dealing with a $4 million shortfall in its $152 million budget, caused in part by state budget cuts, annual cost-of-living increases approved by voters, rising health benefit costs and loss in some federal funding.

Robertson also told board members that the budget for a program that helps students who are at risk of dropping out would not be as severely cut as first proposed.

The Contracted Learning Individualized Pacing program was looking at a possible 40 percent reduction in its budget, but this will be changing, Robertson said.

"It looks like we will be able to soften the hit on that program considerably — it won’t be at 40 percent," he told the board.

The board has until Aug. 31 to approve a budget for the 2002-03 school year.

Pamela Brice is a staff writer for the Enterprise weekly newspapers. You can call her at 425-673-6522 or send e-mail to brice@heraldnet.com.

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