Sequim schools to cut 10 positions

With a statewide limit on how much funding school districts can ask their communities, a decline in enrollment and some uncertainty in what educational programs state officials will allow, several Sequim school staffers have been put on notice.

The Sequim School District sent out nonrenewable notices to 10 district employees on May 15, district officials confirmed last week.

Notices were sent to staff at varying grade levels, including five to provisional teachers — those with three years or less in the Sequim district — and another five to teachers working with one-year contracts.

“In most cases these (people) are new to the profession,” Sequim schools superintendent Gary Neal said.

“It’s not because these buildings don’t want them. It’a a math game.”

Neal said a change in the district’s funding formula — as mandated by state legislators working to meet the McCleary decision requirements — is one of the factors for sending out these notices.

Passed in 2017 by state legislators, House Bill 2242 will in 2019 replace local levies proposed by local school districts with enrichment levies, with a cap of $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed local property values. (Sequim passed a four-year Education Programs and Operations in 2017 with an estimated $1.52 per $1,000 in 2018 up to $1.57 per $1,000 in 2021.)

Neal said the district does not know what educational programs are going to be available next year.

The district needs to make sure positions are filled first for school programs that are required by the state for students to graduate, such as math and English and Language Arts standards, he said.

“(The district) is uncertain about how many staff the state will fund,” Neal said.

Some of the programs that will likely be affected by this are elective classes, he said, although he did not specify which electives could be affected.

Instead of cutting staff from specific departments, the district — after taking into account staff attrition through retirements and resignations — is looking to fill in those core educational programs with teachers who are certified in those areas.

Sequim schools have seen a decline in enrollment, primarily in the seventh, 11th and 12th-grade levels. The district is about 60 students under budget and could be short about $415,000 in state-apportioned funds than what was budgeted for enrollment in the 2017-2018 school year.

Those enrollment numbers would be closer to what the district had budgeted if not for overcrowding at Sequim’s two elementary schools. Neal said this is the second consecutive year the district has had to turn away “choice” students — those living outside the district who want to attend Sequim schools — because of full classrooms at both Greywolf Elementary and Helen Haller Elementary.

Neal said a new element to the McCleary funding formula also requires Washington state school districts to send annual budgets to OSPI, where officials must approve them before they can move forward with staffing and programs.

He said that, depending on funding, the 2018-2019 budget may allow for those cut staffing positions to be reinstated.

“If funding comes back and it looks different, we could hire (those positions) back,” Neal said.

“What we have to be careful is to not be over-staffed,” he said.

Neal said there is still much uncertainty about how the state is meeting requirements for the McCleary mandate — the state’s requirement to fully fund basic education by a Supreme Court-imposed deadline of Sept. 1, 2018. The future of educational offerings outside of graduation-required programs is uncertain in Sequim and elsewhere,” Neal said.

“That’s what scares me,” he said. “What’s this going to look like in three or four years?”