Schools budget better

Money doesn’t seem to be as touchy of a subject as it has been in the past for the Shoreline School District.

The first reading of the 2004-05 budget revealed no layoffs and a projected $1.7 million ending fund balance; a far cry from the debts the district faced only a few years ago.

District officials presented the first draft of the 2004-05 budget at the regular school board meeting Monday, May 24. According to district officials, the plan is to develop a preliminary budget and present it to the school board June 21. A public hearing and adoption of the budget is slated for August 16.

The limited feedback from board members was positive and there were no comments from the community in regards to the draft Monday, district comptroller Paul Flemming said.

“We’re looking at this as a very positive budget for the district, a balanced budget,” Flemming said.

Some key points in the first draft include:

• There will be no layoffs of district staff, according to Flemming. The equivalent of 15.4 full-time certificated staff positions will be reduced as a result of the continued decline in student enrollment, but officials are hopeful to fill that number through attrition and non-continuing contracts, Flemming said.

• There are no projected program cuts or reductions in district expenditures.

• The district is projecting an ending fund balance this year of $1.7 million. In comparison, the district’s ending fund balance for 2000-01 was negative $1.3 million; in 2001-02 it was $264,000 in the hole. A healthy ending fund balance is between four and eight percent of the total budget.

• Revenue should go up by about $2.2. million thanks in part to property taxes and a voter-approved maintenance and operations levy that will go into effect next year.

• Employees’ out-of-pocket medical expenses should go down next year as a result of the state increase in insurance allocations per employee. An additional $103.27 will go towards each employee’s health insurance every month, Flemming said.

• Initiative 728 money, which is intended to help reduce class sizes and provide funding to increase student learning, is slated to increase from $219.52 per FTE student to $254. That increase will bring in an estimated $230,000.

Shoreline superintendent Jim Welsh said he was happy to reflect on the district’s financial position just a year ago and know that it is in a better position today.

“Three hundred and sixty five days ago, we were looking at cuts in nursing, cuts to family advocates, professional development and most importantly, a cutback in staff,” Welsh said. “A year later, we have none of that talk. We’ve turned the corner as far as fiscal health.”

Cheryl Ricevuto, president of the Shoreline Education Association, said she, too, was pleased with the first draft of the budget.

“I am very happy to hear that the financial house is in order … we are at the bone and cutting any further would be hugely detrimental to students,” Ricevuto said.

Welsh added that their future budgetary goal is to get the ending fund balance to fall between 4.5 and 5 percent, which he estimated should take under two years and will involve no major cuts.