DARRINGTON – Armed with a broad smile and cheerful one-liners, Larry Johnson greeted middle school students as they wandered from class to class.
Once they disappeared behind classroom doors, his expression slid into a grimace.
“It’s really tough,” said Johnson, four months into his new job as Darrington School District superintendent.
A chunk of the rural school district’s budget is evaporating.
Between 2001 and this year, its federal Title I money dropped from $1.1 million to $632,700, a 42 percent cut. It could dip to less than $150,000 in two years.
Michael O’Leary / The Herald
Title I is a special pot of federal money designated for schools in poorer areas.
Over the next two years, the loss could force the elimination of three or four teaching positions, about 10 percent of Darrington’s 41-member teaching staff, and a dozen educational assistants.
Such downsizing in a district of 572 students would sting in the classroom as well as the community. The schools are Darrington’s second-largest employer.
Changes to federal funding threw things for a loop.
Several years ago, Darrington became a Title I school with a high concentration of low-income children that made it eligible for federal aid dollars. It was a huge financial windfall.
The district hired teachers and aides and boosted technology for students.
Then the federal government updated the way it distributes the aid. The new formula caused a major shift in funding from many schools nationwide.
Over a five-year period, the Darrington district expects to lose about 16 percent of its $6 million budget because of the loss of federal allocation.
The hit is comparable to voters rejecting a maintenance and operation levy in other school districts, Johnson said.
It could be worse, said Sandy Brown, a program analyst for the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C.
A provision in the law prevents districts that no longer qualify from losing more than 15 percent of the Title I grant money in a given year. That protection lasts for four years.
The district is still receiving about $500,000 more than it might otherwise get.
“They have this windfall and it’s not going to be there, and they are going to have to ramp down,” Brown said.
Johnson will be sending letters to district residents in early November looking for advice.
“Tough decisions will be made, and no matter what the outcome, there will be disappointments,” he said.
One of the first decisions will be whether to phase in the cutbacks or do them all at once.
In the Darrington district, more than 45 percent of students have family incomes that qualify them for a free or subsidized lunch.
The losses remind Beryl Mauldin of the 1970s.
The retired longtime principal at Darrington’s elementary and high schools remembers when the Legislature changed the way timber revenues are distributed to schools.
Districts that included state forest lands and had benefited from a greater allocation of that money had to share with districts across the state.
“We went from a very wealthy district to a very poor district,” he said.
Within a year, the principal added new titles to his job description: counselor, librarian and vocational director.
It’s a story likely to repeat itself soon.
“Eighty percent of our budget goes to people,” Mauldin said. “That’s what we will have to do, get rid of people, which is really sad.”
Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@ heraldnet.com.
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