By John McCallum
Editor 

Cheney school board adopts annual budget

Process was delayed as school district officials waited for state Legislature to finish education measure

 

Last updated 8/24/2017 at 1:02pm



After months of waiting while the state Legislature grappled with how to meet a court order to fully fund basic education, the Cheney School District board of directors finally got to adopt a budget for the 2017–2018 school year.

The district is anticipating revenues of just over $58.33 million, a little over $5.269 million higher than the final projections for 2016–2017. Most of that increase comes from state funding, which is up from $39 million last year to $43.52 million this year.

Local levy revenues are up $178,920 to over $10.399 million, while federal funding drops by $39,877 to $3,354,365. Other financing sources rise significantly from a projected $54,300 to $1,059,000.

Expenses for 2017–2018 are also up, climbing from a projected $51.692 million to slightly over — $58 — $58.3 million. The increase comes from bumps in certificated and classified staff salaries, employee benefits and payroll taxes, supplies and purchased services, with the largest in certificated salaries, up from $22.865 million in 2016–2017 to $26.380 million this coming school year.

In a school board budget workshop on Aug. 9 at Cheney High School, Kassidy Probert, the district’s director of finance, explained that the increase in salaries stems from a 2.3 percent cost of living allowance included in the Legislature’s House Bill 2242, which made significant changes to the way in which basic education is funded in the state.

Probert also told the board that some money had been built into those figures to handle negotiated compensation being undertaken between local unions and the district.

The district’s budget is based upon a projected average in full-time equivalent students of 4,594 — up 106 students from 2016–2017’s average of 4,488. The district has been growing at a steady pace annually, increasing by 680 FTE students since 3,914 in 2013.

Prior to the vote at the Aug. 16 meeting, the board held a public hearing on the budget. The only comment was provided by district resident Bill Johns, who noted that the increase of 106 students, when coupled with the addition of 16–18 new staff members mentioned at the workshop meant there would be a new staff member per every six students.

“It seems unbalanced to me,” he added.

In his hiring report later in the meeting, Associate Superintendent Sean Dotson explained that student enrollment increases over the past several years were made without hiring new staff to specifically address the additional students. New teachers were hired to replace those that retired or left while instruction responsibilities were spread among the existing staff, leaving many teachers stretched and overloaded.

The district has hired over 30 new certificated staff so far. Those hires are to address last year’s, this year’s and future year’s growth.

“That accounts for that larger amount of hiring than what you would see for those 106 students,” Dotson said.

The district also has 11 certified positions left to fill, as well as some support positions the district wasn’t sure could be filled until state funding was clarified in early July. The district has also hired 31 new classified staff for the coming year.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.

Author Bio

John McCallum, Retired editor

John McCallum is an award-winning journalist who retired from Cheney Free Press after more than 20 years. He received 10 Washington Newspaper Publisher Association awards for journalism and photography, including first place awards for Best Investigative, Best News and back-to-back awards in Best Breaking News categories.

 

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