Spokane schools budget passed

In the end, there was nothing left to say.

Spokane Public Schools passed a $259 million general fund budget Wednesday without a single public comment.

The process hadn’t always been so low-key.

For the past six months, public hearings and input from staff and parent advisory groups guided officials as they cut $5.7 million dollars to balance the general fund budget.

Board members said the process drew in more public input than any other issue they could recall.

Before voting to approve the budget, school board President Rocky Treppiedi asked people with comments to step forward.

The room was quiet and still for a moment.

“Don’t everyone rush at once,” Treppiedi said.

Just like last year, the budget-balancing effort involved steadily decreasing enrollment and costs that are rising faster then revenue.

“We’ve been making tough choices for the last four years,” said Mark Anderson, associate superintendent to the board.

The cuts will mean fewer elementary school janitors, slightly larger class sizes and the end of the popular program for middle school students called HUBS that had been supported with federal grants.

The final budget includes some restructuring, including:

• Reducing teaching staff by 60 through attrition except two business teachers. That cuts $3.7 million from the budget and slightly increases class sizes.

• Adding three extra workdays to teachers’ contracts by adding 30 minutes of paid time to their day each Thursday, so teachers can meet to strategize their education efforts.

The move will bump back the start of classes by 30 minutes on that day, but the school day will end at the same time.

• Delaying maintenance costs of painting buildings.

• Reducing travel.

• Reassigning and reducing the numbers of school social workers.

• Using neighboring schools to host students during elementary school construction projects planned for the 2005-2006 school year, which lowers costs such as heating and lighting.

Initially on the table for cuts were gymnastics and boys golf, which were removed from consideration, partly because most public in put frowned on reducing high school sports.

In May, Superintendent Brian Benzel was cheered when he announced his recommendation to keep the sports programs.

“Some of those (programs) we took off the table will probably be there next year unless we get some more help from the Legislature,” said board member Don Barlow.

The HUBS program, which provided before- and after-school activities, was discontinued.

Anderson said $200,000 of the general fund will be used to address the academic needs of struggling middle school students.

“We may be running a limited program at our very highest-need schools,” Anderson said.

For the third year, the custodial staff was trimmed down to six fewer positions, Anderson said. Currently, the staff is around 180.

All teachers will be asked to put chairs on desks and pick up large litter items to help janitors work efficiently.

Classroom sinks will be cleaned every other day, and classrooms will be vacuumed less often, Anderson said.