School District Budget Up

The Sumner School District Board of Directors does not take summer vacations. Their meeting Wednesday, July 13 lasted almost four hours, and covered everything from the 2011-2012 budget to the preparation of teachers and students to meet Common Core State Standards in two years.

“This is a budget that is not revenue- and expenditure-balanced,” said Business Services Executive Director Debbie Campbell, conducting the first Budget Hearing for the 2011-2012 school year budget.

The expected revenue for 2011-12 is $77,879,322. The expected expenditures are $78,485,880, resulting in an expected deficit of $606,558.

The Capital Projects Fund will transfer $1,353,629 to General Funds for the purpose of improvements in technology. In 2007, the federal government began offering rebates for the installation of fiber in school buildings. SSD has not been able to take advantage of this until now, and will receive $77,000 in rebate from the government this coming year.

Besides fiber installation, which will allow many more students to use  computers without them crashing, the money will go toward WESPaC subscriptions (a suite of software created for Washington schools to help with financial management, human resources and student data), computer hardware, certificated salaries and benefits, data assessment software, teaching and learning software, technology software licenses, and a parent call-out system.

“It all has to be around instructional support,” said Campbell, “Not 'the plug in my printer doesn’t work,' but 'how do you use the technology in my classroom?'”

Salaries are slated to go up 1.2 percent, and benefits to go up 0.7 percent.

“We are doing full-time kindergarten in all of our schools this year,” said Campbell, “because we did receive enough.”

The supplies budget has dropped 6 percent (to $8,241,388) from last year, but Campbell said this is because the money has been shifted to other areas, such as travel, which has gone up 23.1 percent (to $68,513) and ASB ($1,737,052).

What else happened at the July 13 meeting?

• The Board of Directors officially appointed Craig Spencer to the position of Interim Superintendent.
• Many community members
• The
• Executive Director of Teaching and Learning Erin Laverdiere summarized the Common Core State Standards, which have been adopted by Washington and 42 other states.
• The board learned about the steps that have been taken toward the goal of “STEM" (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) literacy, including after-school programs at all age levels.
• The bard learned that full- and part-time online student enrollment has risen from 36 in September to 95 by the end of May, with 70 percent of the students successfully completing classes.
• A representative from Puget Sound Educational Service District reported that Highline Superintendent John Walsh will assume the position of adjunct superintendent for a year before he replaces current ESD Superintendent Monte Bridges.
• President of the Board of Directors Sherm Voiles made a statement regarding the mutual separation between the board and former superintendent Gil Mendoza.
• The Board decided to move forward with an assessment of Sumner-Bonney Lake Aquatics as a viable leaseholder for the Sumner Pool.
• The Board approved, by a 3-2 vote, an application to the state for three waiver days. On these days, taken out of the 180-day school year, students will have the day off and teachers will receive mandatory training. “I believe that we should go to 220 days, not 177,” protested Legislative Representative Greg Hanon.