Stimulus promises to help schools

The federal stimulus package working its way through Congress at press time includes billions of dollars in help for schools nationwide.

Meanwhile, schools in Washington state face big cuts from the state, and the Everett School District is no exception. If Gov. Chris Gregoire’s budget passes as proposed, the district would lose about $4.6 million in funding.

The federal stimulus package and other variables have district officials hesitant to make statements about next year’s budget.

“Truly we are in a watch mode,” said Mary Waggoner, Everett School District spokesperson. “We don’t want people to end up on a roller coaster of, ‘This is going to happen – no, that’s going to happen.”

The $4.6 million cut could get bigger or smaller depending on what legislators do and how much worse the economy gets, among other factors.

The cuts are an attempt to close a projected $6 billion deficit over the next two years. The governor’s budget carves $406 million from elementary and secondary schools and another $360 million by not giving teachers pay raises.

Gregoire built her budget on the assumption that the state would get federal stimulus money. Now it looks like the state could get more money than it thought it would.

About one-sixth of the $825 billion federal stimulus package is for schools.

That includes $41 billion in grants to school districts, $79 billion in state fiscal relief to prevent cuts in state aid; $21 billion for school modernization; $2 billion for Head Start and more.

Interim superintendent Karst Brandsma likened the federal stimulus package to a possible white knight.

“Karst said we may have a knight on a white horse headed toward us, but we only see the top of the knights’ head,” Waggoner said. “We have no details.”

Officials have not started to draw up a list of cuts, she said.

But they have started new practices that aim to save money this year. A dollar saved this year is one less dollar that needs to be cut next year, Waggoner said.

The new measures include cancelling some teacher training sessions; deferring curriculum adoptions and a technology update; restricting travel; limiting new hires (the new policy does not apply to teachers); scaling back on labor-intensive “State of the School Reviews” and other changes.