Peninsular Thinking

Some students at South Kitsap High School had planned a walk-out protest of the district’s plans to eliminate 68 positions, including 61 teachers’ jobs, Principal Jerry Holsten said Monday.

Holsten’s comments confirmed some chatter the Kitsap Sun heard via its Facebook page earlier in the day.

“Yes, we heard about something this morning,” Holsten said. “We addressed it with staff and with some students, and there was no activity.”

Morale at the high school (and throughout the district) is low, given the school board’s decision last week to make plans for its most sweeping layoffs in recent memory. The students had apparently planned a sympathy strike by walking out on classes.

“We respect and admire our students’ opinions and values, and their interest in having a voice,” Holsten said. “We simply encourage them to present their voice in a different fashion that’s less disruptive to their schools.”

Although the state Legislature plans to pump additional funding into the K-12 education system, the budget is far from finalized. Whether or not some or all of the jobs will be saved is a big unknown.

The board is required by law to notify teachers who will be RIF’d, giving them adequate time to seek other jobs before the next school year. The board on May 8 elected to stick with the regular May 15 deadline (that’s Wednesday), instead of going with an extension to June 15, approved by the Legislature at the end of the regular session. One board member said it was a courtesy to teachers possibly facing layoffs, since June 15 would give them little planning time.

A total of 25 staff members have said they will retire or resign at the end of this year, so the number of proposed layoffs is 43.

The RIF list includes 3.3 administrative FTEs: 1.3 at the district office, an assistant principal at the high school and one elementary school assistant principal.
Also slated for elimination are:
25.5 elementary level teaching positions
22.9 secondary teaching positions
3.0 special educational teachers
8.5 career and technical education teachers
An instructional specialist, part of a school nurse position and 4.088 classified or non-teaching support positions make up the rest of cuts.

To add to the stress, documentation is due this week on the state’s new method of evaluating teachers and principals, called TPEP, for Teacher/Principal Evaluation Project.

“This is tough time for everybody, staff, students, administrators, parents,” Holsten said. “It’s a stressful time when we have to talk about staff reductions. It’s a somber mood, however our staff are great professionals, and they’re making sure it doesn’t affect our students’ education.”

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South Kitsap School District employees were notified on April 12 of impending layoffs in the district. The Kitsap Sun covered last night’s Q&A with the school board about the district’s budget situation. These are preliminary “worst case” numbers. Retirements, which you will see the district is looking to identify, will help reduce the number of layoffs. Regardless, this is likely to be the biggest RIF for South Kitsap in recent memory.

Here is a (below) is a copy of the letter Interim Superintendent Bev Cheney sent to employees.

Chris Henry, reporter

Begin Cheney letter:
April 12, 2013

MEMORANDUM

TO: All District Staff

FR: Bev Cheney, Interim Superintendent

RE: 2012-13 and 2013-14 Budget Situation

As you may be aware, the District is currently facing some financial challenges including:
· Decreasing enrollment over the past 10+ years
· The ending fund balance for 2011-12 coming in below projection ($634,000 impact)
· The enrollment shortfall for 2012-13 of 80-100 students ($435,000 – $511,600 impact)
· Projected enrollment decline of 2.5% for most schools for 2013-14
· The exhaustion of local funds we have used to build the “rafts” to sustain programs and positions previously funded by state funds in order to continue to provide high levels of hope and learning for every student.
· Impact of sequestration on federal funds and the local economy
· Increased cost of the provision of special education services beyond what the state funds
· Higher than anticipated fuel and utility costs
· The need to restore the Board’s reserve back to 3% by August 2014 (approx. $436,000)
· The negotiation of five contracts this year

The Board has approved the reduction of its reserve from 3% to 2.5% in order to cover the real and projected expenditures for this year. Because of the ending fund balance for 2011-12 coming in below projection and the enrollment shortfall for 2012-13, we cannot guarantee that even with the reduction of the Board’s reserve to 2.5% that we will be able to cover all of our expenditures and provide 100% building carryover into the 2013-14 school year.

Our budget situation is serious. While we knew that we would be reducing staff due to declining enrollment for 2013-14, we also can no longer continue to fund those positions previously supported by state funds with local funds that have enabled us to achieve great gains in student achievement over these past few years. We have exhausted our ability to create the financial rafts that we have created in the past to support those programs and positions no longer funded by the state and that many districts have already reduced or eliminated. Without these financial rafts, we are now in the situation that other districts faced four years ago.

Consequently, due to the budget issues (between $1.6 and $2.5 million and possibly more depending on the outcome of negotiations and sequestration), we will be staffing classroom positions at all elementary and secondary schools at the preferred level. We will also be eliminating 26.5 FTE previously state funded certificated positions that we have been locally funding. In addition, there will be reductions based on enrollment decline.

However, you must also know that staffing at the preferred level and eliminating the previously state funded 26.5 certificated positions will not meet our goal of reducing our budget by $2.5+ million. Consequently, we will also be reducing classified staff in addition to the classified reductions resulting from enrollment decline.

Your new superintendent, Michelle Reid, upon learning of the budget challenges facing the district, revised the District Office organizational structure in order to realize some budget savings. She has chosen not to fill two administrative (Director of School and Family Support and The Director of Special Programs) and one classified position (Executive Assistant for School and Family Support) at the district office. These positions were vacated due to retirements and a person returning to a previous position.

These reductions in staff still do not solve our budget problem. Consequently, a Leadership Budget Team has been working to identify recommendations for additional reductions to our budget. The work of this group is critical. Unfortunately, we have already used all of the non-personnel options, and so the Leadership Budget Team had to look at positions as they developed their recommendations for addressing the $1.6 to $2.5+ million dollar gap. They have completed their work, and now with input from cabinet I will finalize my recommendations to the Board for $2.5+ million in cuts in order to have a balanced budget for 2013-14.

Since we have exhausted non-personnel options, we will be instituting a Reduction in Force (RIF) this year. In addition to reductions in certificated and classified positions caused by declining enrollment, the positions eliminated in the revised District Office organizational structure, and the reduction of the 26.5 certificated FTE previously mentioned, I will be identifying other certificated and classified positions that may need to be reduced. Consequently, I strongly encourage those who are planning to retire or resign this year to submit their letters/forms to HR by no later than April 30, 2013.

I feel bad being the bearer of this news. It is unfortunate that we can no longer support the great programs that state and federal funds enabled us to implement on behalf of student achievement. I wish I had better news as we have great things happening in this district.

While I tried to include as much information in this email as possible to explain our current budget situation, I know that you may still have many questions. Consequently, I want to invite you to attend a Board Work Study session on the topic of our budget at 6:00pm on Wednesday, April 24, 2013 in the theater at the high school. The Board and I will present information on the budget and then answer questions.

Sincerely,

Bev Cheney

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Here’s a press release from the South Kitsap School District about its annual back-to-school event, which seems to get bigge each year.

South Kitsap School District starts off each year with a FREE Back-to-School Celebration

On Saturday, August 20, from 11:00 a.m. – 2 p.m. the South Kitsap School District will hold its seventh annual Back-to-School Celebration for all SKSD students and their families at the South Kitsap High School Track.

Entertainment, music, games, and fun await you and your family at this event. Booths from organizations, businesses, and schools will line the South Kitsap High School track with kid-centered displays, demonstrations, and activities. There will also be hands-on games, art projects, and school bus rides. The day will culminate in a kids’ parade lead by the South Kitsap Community Band. All activities and performances are free. All students should be accompanied by an adult.

In addition free family health services will be available such as vision, hearing and dental screenings.

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The South Kitsap School District will host the Harlem Wizards at 6:30 p.m. tonight at South Kitsap High School, 425 Mitchell Ave., Port Orchard, WA 98366. Tickets are $12 at the door. Proceeds benefit the district.

Here’s the press release from the SK Parent Teacher Student District Council, which organized the event.

Tuesday, May 10 to perform an outstanding show on the court and to take on SKSD’s Key-sters team including, teachers, and principals. See who’s on the SK team!

The game starts at 6:30 p.m. at South Kitsap High School. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Refreshments and souvenirs will be sold and free autographs from players will be available after the game.

Fans will see amazing basketball talent combined with hilarious comedy. It’s two hours of family time where parents, grandparents, and kids can all laugh together. Throughout the game fans will experience a magical display of tricks, coordinated ball handling, fancy passing and aerodynamic athleticism combined with high-energy comedy and audience interaction. The experience can only be summed up in two words: Awe-Inspiring

BUY TICKETS NOW:
Tickets are available for purchase online at www.harlemwizards.com. Or by mail – download Ticket Order Form. Tickets are $10 in advance, $12 at the door, 3 and under are free.

Proceeds will benefit the students of the South Kitsap School District.

This event is sponsored by the SK Parent Teacher Student District Council. For more information, contact Tracy Hopkins at tshopkins@wavecable.com.

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South Kitsap School District officials have invited parents and community members to a meeting to discuss the district’s future from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at South Kitsap High School.

The school board last week voted to lay off the equivalent of 15 teachers. The district is required under teachers’ contracts to send notices by May 15 to those whose positions are targeted for elimination. According to school board President Kathryn Simpson, the district actually will be eliminating 25 teaching positions, but some will come from attrition and retirement.

The district has cut $19 million since 2009 and faces the need to cut $6.5 million in the 2011-12 school year. Without local levy support, the district would be bankrupt, according to Terri Patton, assistant superintendent of business and support services.

South Kitsap in the past has been able to balance its shrinking budget through attrition, but enrollment — a key revenue driver — is down this school year (2010-11) by 3.22 percent, when the district had expected a decrease of 1.25 percent. In addition, federal stimulus funds that helped buoy the district through the past couple years has dried up, and the state has made drastic cuts to education.

The district learned partway through the school year (once its 2010-11 budget already had been adopted) that the state wold be cutting funding for the current year by about $2 million. This was partially offset by federal funding to save teachers’ jobs, but the net result was a loss of $890,000 in this school year.

The state Legislature has proposed deep cuts to education for the upcoming school year. The Senate version of the budget calls for a $250 million reduction to K-12 education that was not included in the House. They’ll go back to negotiations for a special session this week. For that reason, Simpson does not expect legislators representing South Kitsap to be at Wednesday’s discussion, although they were invited.

Bottom line, class sizes are going to increase. And the question parents likely will be asking — or should be asking — is what does this mean to my kid?

In addition to what the district has to say about how it will try to accommodate the loss of teachers, I wonder what plans families have for living with SKSD’s new normal.

Will you migrate to a private school? Likely that’s a factor in decreased enrollment, although I don’t have the stats at hand to prove it.

Will you give your kids a primer on how to get their questions answered, their voices heard in the crowd? Will you amp up your level of parental hovering, where schools are concerned?

One last question: Bainbridge Island has had considerable success supplementing that district’s budget through its foundation, with pledges and fundraisers.

Disclaimer: I’ve not heard anyone from South Kitsap School District raise this as a possibility. I’m just wondering if anyone out there would be willing to donate to public schools.

Just askin’.

Chris Henry, reporter

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Ah, the first day of school: the smell of new pencils, the look of new clothes carefully chosen, the sound of eager voices, children ready to hit the books for another year.

But wait, one district was missing.

On Wednesday, as students in North Mason and all other Kitsap County schools returned to the classroom, students in South Kitsap School District continued with their summertime sloth and frivolity.

At least the kids in my neighborhood could be seen soaking up those precious last dabs of summer sunshine, getting in the last few games of basketball, a last bike ride. Some I know personally took the opportunity to sleep in until all hours, before the rude shock to their systems of having to make the bus in the cold, gray dawn.

I called Greg Roberts, assistant superintendent of personnel, to ask why South Kitsap schools resume Sept. 8, a week later than other districts.

“For years, South Kitsap has always started after Labor Day, so there’s a tradition on that,” Roberts said.

On the calendar, Labor Day cycles year by year farther into the month before jumping back to near the beginning, Roberts said. This year, the difference in start time between schools that start before Labor Day and after is more pronounced.

Families in South Kitsap have told district officials that they like having the extra time at the end of the summer, Roberts said. And really, if you think about it, the other districts will be just getting up a small head of steam, when wham, there’s a three-day weekend.

The decision has nothing to do with the South Kitsap Education Association, the teachers’ union, which recently ratified a new three-year contract with the district. Teachers have the right to bargain for starting before Labor Day, but it’s never come up in Roberts’ memory.

South Kitsap’s late start does not mean that students get fewer days of schooling, Roberts said. South Kitsap compresses its 180 student days over nine months so that the last day of school, June 15, is within a day or two of most other school districts in the area.

So, to all Kitsap and North Mason students and their families, enjoy this Labor Day, and as you bid adieu to summer, stay safe, have fun and make memories to carry you through the winter.

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