Clarkston School Board approves budget reduction

Mar. 26—The Clarkston School Board voted on a modified education program for the 2024-25 school year that includes budget and staffing reductions as well as temporary changes to the high school schedule.

Superintendent Thaynan Knowlton presented a plan Monday night that included changes to the fund balance, administrative support, budget, staffing and legislative support because of enrollment decline at the high school. The plan was unanimously approved by the board.

Board member Miles Sidener said that he didn't want to have to modify the budget and hopes it won't have to happen again.

"I understand we had to do it," Sidener said. "It's not something I feel good about."

Board President Dennis Lenz said that the board should be able to avoid it in the future when it reviews the district's budget with the student enrollment numbers.

Knowlton explained the background of the situation to the board about the enrollment decline. Since 2018 enrollment at Clarkston High dropped by 169 students and 69 of those enrolled in Clarkston High's online school, meaning 100 students in grades 9-12 weree no longer enrolled in the district. Knowlton said Clarkston isn't the only district having the issue, Washington had a statewide 4% decline in public school enrollment.

The district receives $11,500 from the state for every full-time student, so it's a loss of about $1.2 million. Knowlton said if the budget changes aren't made now then the district will use less than 1% of its reserve funding.

"We can't use all our reserves in one year hoping that something changes," Knowlton said.

Some of the funds to pay for the deficit will come from the fund balance, a reserve used to cover emergency expenditures, including budget deficits. The district will use $700,000 in order to prevent more staffing losses. After the funds are used for the 2024-25 school year the district will have 3.5% of the district's budget in the reserves instead of the usual 5%.

"The goal is to save as many jobs as possible," Knowlton said.

Regarding staffing, Knowlton said 11 positions were impacted. Some of those were retirements, some were nonrenewals of contracts and some were cuts to provisional staff. That portion of the budget, which makes up 84% of the district's total, was reduced by $1.1 million. Some of the staffing changes will also involve moving positions around to fill in gaps or moving people to different schools.

Another step will be administrative support reductions, which will be cut next year. Knowlton said that announcement will have more details coming later.

The budget was set lower for the next year and includes $150,000 of savings. The cuts to the budget are for nonmandatory items and expenditures such as travel for professional development, equipment and maintenance. Knowlton said it doesn't mean what was cut isn't important, but the district isn't able to fund those services and he hopes that those areas will be funded again when the budget is more healthy.

Board member Chris Bunce suggested possible cuts to school board travel to conferences. The board goes to the Washington State School Directors' Association conference every year.

Sidener agreed that the board could not attend the event, and Knowlton said that it would help trim the budget more and there could also be some online options for board members. Lenz said that if the board is asking others to take cuts, they should as well.

Knowlton also discussed the $300,000 from the Washington Legislature the district will be receiving for transportation, materials, supplies, operating costs and pay for some staffing based on a funding model. Those areas being funded by the Legislature will allow funds to be used elsewhere. The gap that the Legislature doesn't pay for has to be covered by the district.

"This is why we have to run levies, bonds, capital levies, to pay for the gap that the state doesn't give us money for," Knowlton said.

The changes to staffing, the budget and enrollment will also cause changes for the schedule at the high school. The high school is on an A/B block schedule, meaning students have four 80-minute classes on one day and then another four classes on another day.

With the changes, the school won't be able to offer as many classes with the reductions and will have to move to a six-period schedule with each class being 54 minutes long. The move to a six-class schedule will be temporary for one year and the district will look for other options to provide more electives within the budget, such as a hybrid model.

One reason for the six-period schedule is temporary is for graduation requirements. With a six-period schedule, a student failing one class could put that student in jeopardy of not receiving enough credits for graduation. When the district finds an alternative schedule, there will be more elective classes and more opportunities for students to make up classes.

Knowlton thanked the people involved in working to find solutions the last few weeks. He said he understood the sadness and difficulty of the changes, but the plan will be more sustainable for the school district's future.

Brewster may be contacted at kbrewster@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2297.