May 12, 2009

Dear Fife School District Family,

I have an update for you regarding our budget reductions for the coming year. As you know from my previous communication (click here to read), we were looking at over $1.6 million in total reductions as we sat out to balance the budget for this coming year and we were unsure about the impact that the federal stimulus monies would have on our overall bottom line. I proposed to you a “worst case scenario” that contemplated either no stimulus dollars or the circumstance that we would have very little flexibility with whatever dollars we would receive. In actuality it has played out that we are somewhere in the middle.

The good news is that because we have managed well and have saved nearly $600,000 to the current budget, we will be able to further offset our worst case scenario and it will not be necessary to change our library services model for the coming year. Even though we are not having to reduce everything that we identified in our proposed plan, the reduction in force or RIF conversations that I have had with staff to date are very real cuts. If you refer to the updated reduction list located below, you will see that our limited federal stimulus dollars coupled with our increased savings to our general fund has limited the additional cuts in our contingency plan to two staff rather than the four in our worst case scenario.  All of these individuals that will not have secured positions with the district for next year have been personally notified by myself and no further reductions will be made for the coming year. I purposefully have not spoken with those individuals who are either moving stations or potentially changing assignments as those types of changes occur each and every year and at the minimum are secured positions. Those conversations ( if any are needed) and the instances of non-renewed contracts as always will take place between the staff member and the building principals.

My hope is that as student enrollment increases we may be able to recall some of the staff we have laid off, but at this point those cuts again are very real. I would like to thank Betsy Ritchie and Josi Larsen (our respective FEA and PSE presidents) who were very professional and collaborative in helping with this very difficult task. I would also like to thank our school board and our administrative team for their understanding and their compassion in supporting our goal of limiting the reductions to the classroom as much as possible. We truly sat out with the goal of what we could protect and save rather than what we needed to cut and reduce. While none of these are actions that we like to take or choose to take, we trust that our final actions meet the spirit and intent of our mission.

I look forward to seeing each of you at our Standard Bearer Celebration on Thursday. It will be nice to celebrate the very good work that we are all working so hard to achieve in our fine district in spite of the obstacles and challenges that we face.

Thanks again for all that you do for our students,

Steve

Dr. Steve McCammon

Superintendent

Fife School District No. 417                                          

Standard Bearer School District                        

Phone (253) 517-1000

Fife School District

Updated Prioritized Budget Reductions

2009-2010 School Year

(May 12, 2009)

April 23, 2009

Dear Fife School District Family,

I take this opportunity to present to you our proposed budget reduction plan for the 2009-2010 school year. As reported in my two previous messages during this school year, one of our frustrations has been that we have not known the actual specifics of the funding shortfall that we will experience. To date, we still do not have that actual amount from Olympia and we are still awaiting final direction on the potential uses of the Federal stimulus monies that our school district will receive. We do, however, face a deadline of making critical decisions with regard to setting a budget for next year that unfortunately does involve a reduction in force that requires us to move forward with the best information that we have available at this time. It is important to note that this plan is a worst case scenario that does not include any stimulus monies. We are certain that we will be receiving up to a potential of $700,000, but we do not have the specifics on how it can be spent or of the actual amount that we will be receiving. What we do know is that our worst case scenario that we are budgeting for is in the amount a $1.6 million shortfall in funding, which is about 4% of our current operating budget and falls on top of a cumulative reduction of over $3 million over the past five years.

Since receiving the initial information about the shortfalls back in November, we have been meeting on a regular basis to problem solve and look under every rock for ways to absorb whatever the impact is that we will be facing. With the full knowledge that every dollar we save and every grant that we receive would offset the potential reductions, I am happy to report that we have managed, through good fiscal discipline and budget management to save over $425,000 that will immediately offset our reductions. We will not use this to build our fund balance over the 3% floor, but again will use it to mitigate our cuts in program and staffing by up to one quarter of the anticipated worst case scenario.

The following is the prioritized plan for our reductions in narrative form. At the conclusion of this message the reduction sheet can be viewed on one page. As you may recall I asked Mr. Knight to begin the process of changing the block schedule at the high school from the four-period day back to another format. That change is well underway and a six-period day will indeed be implemented in the fall of next year. This will allow us to teach school at the high school with less staffing. The result of this change is that the district will save over $300,000 in staffing costs at the high school. As I mentioned back in December, although in the past we have been able to protect our classrooms during the process of our previous reductions (click here for the 2003-2004 and 2008-2009 budget reductions) and have limited the pain to a reasonable increase in class size by reducing some staff by attrition and in cutting deep at central office and administration across the district, these cuts will hit the classroom in a more profound way. It indeed is evident that these cuts from the state will be taken out of most if not all of our I-728 monies. To date we fund about seventeen staff members out of this funding source. While we are reducing in many other areas to offset this personnel reduction, it will come largely out of staff reduction. Toward that end we will also be reducing the staffing at Columbia Junior High School by two full time teaching positions. This reduction will account for $150,000  toward the savings for next year with total salaries and benefits.

The next phase of our plan eliminates six lunchtime custodial positions. Currently only four of them are filled but the total reduction in this area will save over $50,000. We will also be reducing office and clerical positions by two full-time positions across the school district. This will reduce our budget shortfall by nearly $90,000 with salaries and benefits.

One of our major goals has been to protect the classroom especially at our elementary school level as our class sizes are slowly rising due to increased enrollment and lower funding each year. We are also experiencing more diversity than ever before and are sensitive to the fact that the challenges that our elementary schools are facing are greater and greater as more and more students do not speak English as a primary language. Class size is certainly an important precursor to success in our elementary classrooms and I hope that this budget reduction reflects that mission. Should the stimulus money not come in at the highest levels that we anticipate or should the state reduction end up even higher than anticipated, we will be reducing our elementary teaching staff by up to three teaching positions at that point for a reduction in our budget of over $230,000 with salaries and benefits.

Finally, in our worst case scenario, we have a contingency plan to reduce up to four more certificated staff district-wide to close the ultimate gap by over another $300,000.  In that event, we are putting a staffing contingency plan in place that would ensure that elementary class sizes do not increase too greatly. Should the need arise to make those staffing reductions at the elementary level, we will be consolidating our K-7 librarians so that two full-time librarians will be responsible for all four libraries. In many districts the certificated librarian model has been eliminated entirely. We do not support that model, but would however support a model that would keep our media centers open all the time with classified support but they would only be staffed part of the day by a full-time certificated librarian. Again, this is a contingency plan of last resort and would only be implemented to protect class size at our pre-kindergarten through 7 buildings.

At our regularly scheduled school board meeting on April 27, we will provide for the public this proposed plan for balancing our 2009-2010 budget. The board meeting will serve as a public forum for input into our proposed plan and will allow for any adjustment to be made prior to finalizing the budget and implementing any reductions in staff or in program. I know that obvious questions arise when decisions are made regarding precious resources that are so vital to educating our youngest citizens. Please follow this attached link for a short list of anticipated questions and answers that I hope will be helpful to you.

Finally, I would like our entire educational community to be fully aware of just how difficult this particular budget process has been in that we will surely be losing some incredible young teachers and valuable support staff to this budget reduction. I plan to meet individually with each of these fine educators to not only offer whatever assistance is possible in helping them in their future endeavors, but also to thank them first hand for the wonderful job that they have done in helping to shape the lives of the young people in the Fife, Milton and Edgewood communities. It will truly be our loss that we will not have a place for every educator that we so clearly need in our fine school district.

As always, thank you for your steadfast support of our collective efforts in continuing to provide a world class education for all of our students even in these difficult financial times. Your support is valued more than you can possibly know as we face these unprecedented challenges. Please see the prioritized budget reductions below.

Steve

Fife School District

Prioritized Proposed Budget Reductions

2009-2010 School Year