While local school districts are already facing budget cuts and possible layoffs, the Edmonds, Shoreline and Everett school districts, along with others state-wide, are also are facing cuts from I-728 dollars.
The source: the state lottery.
Initiative 728, which voters approved two years ago to improve student achievement and reduce class sizes, gets money from property taxes and the lottery. For the second straight year, soft lottery sales have translated into late year cuts for school districts.
Statewide, it’s a $14 million hit.
“It’s lower sales,” said Mike Bigelow, associate superintendent of budget and school business services for the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. “They just don’t have the revenue.”
Shoreline assistant superintendent Linda Johnson added, “when lottery revenue is down, the state can ask for I-728 money back, even if it has already been spent.”
Because individual school boards determine where money from I-728 will go, each district has a different spending plan.
Some, such as Edmonds, which invests its heavily in class-size reduction, have more I-728 money tied up in salaries, which make last-minute cuts difficult. Roughly $4.1 million of the $4.5 million Edmonds is getting this year from I-728 is spent on salaries with contracts it can’t break.
Edmonds learned recently it will receive about $300,000 less than expected, meaning cuts will have to come from individual school programs.
The Shoreline School District received $2.1 million from I-728 this year, but is expecting a $146,383 in reductions.
Because the reductions come after the district budget had been created, “it’s a catch-22 situation,” comptroller for the Shoreline School District Paul Flemming said. “We could budget less next time and deliver less to our students, or we could budget the full amount we think is going to come in and then get hit with (reductions) like this.”
The district is unsure of where cuts will be made at this time, Flemming said.
Most of the $3,610,000 the Everett School District received through I-728 is tied up in teacher salaries.
“That money goes towards reducing the teacher-student ration to improve student learning,” spokesperson for the Everett School District Gay Campbell said. “No matter how you look at it, with declining enrollment … and the budget proposal in the legislature and this, we’re looking at major cuts that will probably touch the classroom.”
The total loss to the districts because of low lottery sales, Flemming said, will be about $15 per full-time student.
With the state’s $2.6 billion deficit and schools listed on the cut-list, districts could face even more reductions next year.
Gov. Locke’s proposed budget would freeze I-728 at existing levels and suspend for the two years the automatic teacher pay raises that were part of voter-approved Initiative 732.
Herald reporter Eric Stevick contributed to this story.
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