Rules Change Will Hit Alternative Education Program Limitations May Be Placed On How Money Is Spent

The future of West Valley School District’s cooperative alternative education program is uncertain, administrators said Thursday.

If passed into law, new regulations proposed by the state Superintendent of Public Instruction could alter the way the program is funded and run.

The proposed rules would require school districts to operate two separate budgets, one for regular programs and one for alternative programs. Limitations would also be placed on how the districts spend money on alternative education.

“Right now, we’re starting school in two weeks. We may just have to proceed this year and see how it goes,” said Dave Smith, superintendent of West Valley School District. “I just don’t think you can change in the 11th hour.”

West Valley runs the cooperative program that serves more than 700 students from West Valley, East Valley, Central Valley and Mead school districts at Spokane Valley High School and Contract Based Education on Bowdish.

The program runs on a budget of about $2.5 million.

Of greatest concern to West Valley administrators is the limitation placed on how money is spent. Under the proposed rules, only 30 percent of the alternative education budget could be spent on “indirect costs,” which includes such things as maintenance, utilities and transportation, as well as nurses, counselors and principals.

“There’s a lot of things that I see as direct costs,” said Doug Matson, assistant superintendent of West Valley. “They want us to do more with less.”

“We just don’t know what that 30 percent is going to mean to us,” Smith added.

Restrictions on that funding could mean some parts of the program have to be cut out, administrators said.

Also, because West Valley runs the program, it receives funding for each student enrolled. However, the other three participating districts receive back from West Valley smaller amounts of money to manage their students’ enrollment in the alternative program.

That money also is included as an “indirect cost,” of alternative education and will be cut off during the 1995-96 school year, Smith said. It’s unclear what affect that cutback will have on the other three districts’ budgets.

“That’s something that can be worked out between the districts in a co-op,” said Tom Case, of the SPI’s office.

Also, all funding for alternative education must be used specifically for those programs. In the past, districts have included alternative education money in their regular budgets, meting it out as needed.

The new rules, if passed into law, will require each district with an alternative program to operate two separate budgets and will allow those alternative programs to be audited.

“We are concerned about districts operating ‘out of sight, out of mind,”’ said Case. “If (districts) are going to claim the students, the students are entitled to full services.”

, DataTimes