The Shoreline School Board approved a roughly $86 million general fund budget for 2007-08 at its meeting Monday night, with a positive — though meager — ending fund balance estimated for August 2008.
The district and its two largest unions, the Seattle Education Association (SEA) and Shoreline Educational Support Professionals Association (SESPA), still have not reached agreement on key issues that would impact the budget to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Hundreds of teachers and support staff picketed the Aug. 27 meeting, and some there asked how the board could approve a budget when labor negotiations are still underway.
District officials responded that they have no choice but to pass a balanced budget and are on a deadline from the state to do so.
“How can you adopt a budget when staffing costs are unresolved?” a teacher from the audience asked the board at the Aug. 27 meeting.
Union leaders said that it seemed the district thought they were going to “roll over” on the district’s proposals to save money from staffing.
“It appears it doesn’t matter what we think, even though this is supposed to be a negotiation,” said Donna Lurie, Uniserve representative for SEA and SESPA, addressing the district. “Your position seems set in stone.”
The board has approved a budget with a spending limit of about $86 million, but it has not approved the specifics of how the district will get to that number, according to Marcia Harris, deputy superintendent.
Harris has said previously that if the district and labor unions do not reach agreement, there is a contingency plan to balance the budget. She declined to elaborate on that after Monday’s meeting.
The state deadline for a board to approve a budget is the end of August, and the deadline for districts to send them to the state is Sept. 3.
Even when the districts send budgets to the state Sept. 3, it’s not required they outline specifically how they will achieve the numbers, Harris said.
The district has no choice but to pass a balanced budget, since representatives from the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction are telling district officials they will accept no less than that, she said.
“We are mandated by the state to have a positive fund balance by Aug. 31, 2008,” Harris said. “Being at zero isn’t OK.”
The projected ending fund balance for 2007-08 is a complicated number, since some money in it is reserved for specific purposes, Harris said. The ending fund balance for 2007-08 is estimated at about $7,800, but once money that’s used for reserved, specific purposes is taken into account, the balance is a negative $422,000. This is called the unreserved ending fund balance, Harris said.
There are several reasons for the difference. One example is that groups do fundraising or get grants in one year that they spend in another year.
To achieve a larger ending fund balance than the $7,800, the district is looking at more cuts for 2007-08.
“We continue to look for ways to save money at all levels and within all programs,” Harris said. “If we can find ways to spend less, it will improve the fund balance.”
The board’s approval of an $86 million budget means that’s the district’s spending limit: It can spend no more than $86 million in 2007-08. However, it can spend less than that amount, which means there is room for more cuts.
In the 2007-08 budget, spending is about $1,200,000 less than revenues.
That’s a positive, but the district is starting the 2007-08 school year in the red, with an estimated –$1.7 million deficit.
That beginning fund balance number of –$1.7 million isn’t final yet because of numbers that are still coming in, Harris said
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