Prior to the vote on the recent CK Support School Levy, there was quite a stir of rather heated debate occurring here on the Kitsap Sun website regarding the respective merits of voting yea or nay.

Many of those commenting faulted WA State officials for not properly funding local public education. Still others placed the blame on district superintendents, staff, and school boards for not exercising prudent fiscal responsibility.

Well, if you weren’t aware, both the Senate and the House released their budget proposals last Tuesday, and next week, will negotiate a finalized budget. The negative impact that the extreme reductions proposed in this budget draft could have at the local level would be catastrophic.

Just in case you want to see what impact the proposed budget would have, please click here to view the School Funding Facts II, or click here to view the supporting documentation.

As our state legislators hash out the last minute details of the budget, the good folks down at Central Kitsap School District are continuing their efforts in developing CKSD budget options for school year 2010-11. Their proactive and fiscally conservative approach over the last several years has allowed them to anticipate and avoid the drastic large-scale layoffs faced last spring by other districts throughout the state and to keep cuts from impacting the classroom.

However, ultimately, the solvency of CKSD’s financial future rests with our elected legislators and the governor.  Our district financial personnel have already made all the reductions they can without taking any severe measures. Unfortunately, our district has little additional financial resources available to effectively absorb the multi-million dollar reductions contained in the current budget proposals.

Anyone who is familiar with our Superintendent, Greg Lynch, Executive Director David McVicker, and the hard working members of our school board, knows how seriously they all take their responsibilities and stewardship of district finances. These are all people who genuinely care about the quality of education our kids receive, and seek to equip our teachers and school staff with all the resources necessary to maintain that result.

I am extremely grateful to the voters of Central Kitsap who approved the recent levy renewal. The current economic times are tough on all of us and it’s not easy to commit even more of our hard earned dollars to a cause that is supposed to be fully funded by State government.

Let’s hope that the folks in Olympia find some other way to cover the budget shortfalls than to further impede our school district’s ability to ensure educational excellence.