SOUTH WHIDBEY: School District approves budget

Luisa Loi reports from the South Whidbey School District for the South Whidbey Record.

The South Whidbey School Board recently approved the budget for the 2024-25 school year, authorizing the district to spend up to $22.4 million and to eliminate band for fifth graders and some staffing positions through attrition.

The budgeted revenues amount to $21.7 million, a smaller amount than the expenditures as revenues have not been increasing at the same rate as costs.

To make up the difference between revenues and expenditures (both of which also have an additional $250,000 budgeted for capacity), the district is reducing expenses and using funds from the over $4 million fund balance, according to the budget and an email sent by Superintendent Josephine Moccia.

They Said It

In a text, Board President Brook Willeford explained that the district is “carefully” spending the reserve funds to make it last and “slow the pace of those cuts as long as possible.”

By eliminating band for fifth graders, the district is reducing Chris Harshman’s job from a 1.2 full-time position to a 1.0 so that he can focus on the middle and high school students, Willeford wrote in an email.

When facing financial challenges, districts are forced to prioritize required offerings — such as PE — over opportunities that are not required, Moccia explained on July 24. In many other districts, band starts in the sixth grade. Furthermore, fifth graders will still receive music opportunities through other specialist classes, she added.

For example, it is by making these cuts that the district can keep kindergarten class sizes small by recruiting a third teacher, Moccia said. Two years ago, as pointed out by Board Member Joe Greenheron, parents complained about the large size of kindergarten classes.

“We think we’re providing a robust program based on the budget that we have in place,” Moccia said at the meeting….

All staff reductions occurred through attrition, an accomplishment Moccia and Willeford said they were pleased with.

The reductions include the assistant principal and athletic director position held by Paul Lagerstadt, according to an email sent by Willeford. John Sommer, a teacher on special assignment, will take up the athletic director responsibilities….

Since the director of special education left in 2023, this role has been absorbed into the superintendent’s responsibilities for no additional salary, Moccia wrote in an email, and this continues to remain the same in the 2024-25 school year. The additional special education duties were covered by two teachers on special assignment, who will be reduced to one the coming school year….

The experience factor, which increases funding for school districts with teachers that are more experienced and qualified than the state average, went from 2% to 1% and will disappear next year, according to information provided via email by Board President Brook Willeford.

Regionalization, which provides additional funds to school districts with high property values, has been going down by 2% each year and is now at 18%, despite the rise in property values, according to Willeford and the budget presentation….

On the bright side, while the state underfunds special education in the district, Willeford is grateful to the legislature for increasing the percentage of special education students receiving additional funding. According to the presentation, the special education cap was increased from 15% to 16%. This, in addition to the voter-approved Educational Programs and Operations levy, will allow for all of the district’s 180 special education students to be fully funded, Willeford wrote.

The state, he wrote, underfunds special education by $944,829 out of a total of $3,701,098 in costs.