Clover Park School Board Approves $144 Million Budget

The Clover Park School Board has unanimously approved an operating budget of $144 million for the 2011-12 school year.

The budget reflects a revenue loss of $5.6 million in state and federal funding.

“We were very conservative in our fiscal planning,” said Superintendent Debbie LeBeau in a news release.

CPSD expects an enrollment of 11,134 students for the upcoming school year, which is 183 less than in 2010-11. The district also lost $1.52 million in federal stimulus money. Those two factors resulted in reductions to certificated staffing. Specifically, one full-time equivalent (FTE) central certificated employee and eight FTE classified employees were eliminated, and the district’s classroom-coach program was reduced from 24 to 15 educators.

Other staffing and budget reductions, including non-employee-related costs, were made in administrative offices for a savings of $2.58 million. As part of the district’s fiscal stability plan, $1.5 million from the district’s fund balance was utilized to offset the revenue loss. 

LeBeau said that the parameters she set for the district’s budget decisions included maximizing grant funding; retaining prior and current year reductions; ensuring no school closures in 2011-12; and utilizing funding reserves “responsibly.”

“Our focus remains on student achievement,” she said. “Our priorities for the 2011-12 school year are to continue achievement gains in math and reading; and to maintain class sizes, teaching staff and instructional support.

“We intentionally kept cuts as far away from impacting students in classrooms as possible. Reductions of staff and discretionary budgets in central office departments will still impact our schools, in terms of less support and services.”

District administrators anticipated revenue reductions and during the 2010-11 school year set aside funding to help buffer the current reductions, the news release said. Additional revenue losses are anticipated again for the 2012-13 school year.

Other district administrators have agreed that they do not anticipate a solution in the near future.

“We see this as a multiyear problem for the state and a multiyear problem for the district,” said Lynn Wilson, the district’s director of business services, operations and capital projects, in June.

District officials anticipate the school board’s consideration of a replacement educational and operations levy proposal this fall. CPSD’s current levy expires in December 2012.