CPSD Projects Loss of $980K to 2011-12 Budget

The good news is that Clover Park School District has received a budget from the state.

The bad news is that its impact remains to be seen.

That is what Lynn Wilson, the district’s director of business services, operations and capital projects, told the School Board in presenting the district’s new draft budget Tuesday at district headquarters.

The preliminary impact is $980,000 districtwide, he said during the meeting and workshop. That total includes everything from basic education to special education.

The district had expected a loss of up to $20 million in federal funding.

The district is projecting an operating revenue of $131.1 million, down from the $133.8 million in the budget adopted by the board in April.

“There are still some material unknowns from the state,” Wilson said. “This is our expenditure budget.”

In that budget, which projects total revenue of $137.6 million, schools are funded first, he said. The draft budget estimates that schools will receive $67.5 million. Centrally budgeted school services, such as custodial services and speech therapists; auxiliary services including food service and transportation, and school support sites must stretch the remaining funds.

“Allocations to the schools have changed,” Wilson said.

Wilson said that the only expected source of revenue increase would come from local taxes in the final year of the current levy.

In  CPSD, the budget development process starts in September, when the district begins planning for the following school year. The current-year school budget is reallocated in October based on actual enrollment.

CPSD expects an enrollment of 11,134 students for the upcoming school year, which is 183 fewer than in 2010-11.

Among the Legislative budget impacts for 2011-12 are the suspension of third-year cost-of-living adjustments; no more state-funded Leaning Improvement Days (LID) days; and the suspension of K-4 enhancement.

And while Title I remains fully funded, Wilson said “there is concern for the LAP program.” The district expects to lose $900,000 in supplemental funds, called poverty enhancement, for the Learning Assistance Program.  

Additionally, funding for certificated and classified salaries was cut 1.9 percent, and administrative salaries, 3 percent.

Wilson said that in going from freezing pay to now cutting it, “We would be happy to just get back to freezing.”

“We see this as a multiyear problem for the state and a multiyear problem for the district,” Wilson said.

In one state budget proposal, employees would not receive their pay on June 30, but rather on July 1, which is the start of a new fiscal year. That affects the district’s payroll.  

 “It doesn’t get any easier for us,” Wilson said. “The economy could have some significant impacts for us.”