COUPEVILLE: Coupeville schools want input on cuts (WNT)

Luisa Loi reports from the Coupeville School District board meeting of Wed. Mar. 13, 2024 for the Whidbey News-Times.

The Coupeville School District is seeking community input that will be used to inform upcoming budget decisions, which are due by the end of July.

Parents, staff members, students and community members have until 4:30 p.m. on Monday, March 25 to complete an anonymous five-question survey, available in English and Spanish on the district’s “Budget Information For 24-25” page.

Currently, the district is expecting to make significant budget cuts for the 2024-2025 school year, which may amount to $1.66 million or more, according to Finance Director Brian Gianello. The district is current on a state financial “watch list.”

They Said It

According to information provided by [Finance Director Brian] Gianello, about 87% of the budget is dedicated to staffing and staff benefits. Board Member Nancy Conard said this means the cuts will mainly affect employees.

“Most of the cuts are going to have to be people,” she told the audience. “There’s just no getting around.”

Conard said employees were asked to give notice of their intentions to leave or retire, so the district can eliminate those positions by attrition rather than laying off people. She also expects some staff members will “juggle around” to make up for those losses.

Conard said the district wants to ensure that, if staff reductions are necessary, there is an understanding of what the consequences of each potential cut may be. This year, for example, the elimination of three paraeducators resulted in overworked staff and reduced support for special needs students.

According to Conard, the district is required to maintain a 6% fund balance, which has not been happening. To restore the fund balance, the district will have to make more budget cuts in the future to keep up with rising costs and lower revenues. The upcoming budget reductions would restore 2% of the fund balance.

Board Member Allison Perera said there would be months where no information would come out, but at the time it was fine because the revenues and expenses were about the same each year. When the pandemic hit, districts were given large sums of money for programs to help students weather the unprecedented health crisis, but then the funding dried up while many of the programs persist.

“We can recover from it,” Conard said. “It’s not going to be fun, but we can.”