Waiting for the budget ax

Lynda Hayashi spent 30 minutes Tuesday afternoon explaining the fundamentals of poetry to fourth-graders by asking for words that rhyme with pimple.

She almost cracked a smile when a pupil shouted “nipple.”

It was a light moment in an anxious week. The Audubon Elementary School librarian wonders whether she’ll be around next year to talk with students about verse and prose.

Faced with a budget crunch, Spokane Public Schools is looking at ways to trim about $10.5 million from its multimillion-dollar annual budget.

Superintendent Brian Benzel is expected to announce options today, and though he has not indicated what possible cuts he’ll suggest, there’s plenty of speculation among the ranks.

“There’s huge anxiety. There’s a lot of worrying about the unknown,” said Maureen Ramos, president of the Spokane Education Association. “Truly, anything that isn’t a mandated program can be looked at for cuts.”

Because the cuts will come from a very small portion of the budget – those things not mandated by the state or federal government – that could mean eliminating librarians or counselors; increasing class sizes; and cutting band and orchestra, sports programs and other courses not tied to required curriculum.

Hayashi, who has been at Audubon for eight years, said she met with library specialists from other district elementary schools this week and the topic immediately turned to whether libraries would be spared from the chopping block. Somebody saw elementary librarians on “a list” of things to be cut, but where the list was and the identity of its author were still a mystery.

“They wanted to know what had I heard; they are scared to death,” Hayashi said. “It’s been very nerve wracking.”

But it’s not an unfamiliar feeling. The same wave of panic swept through the hallways between 2003 and 2004, when millions of dollars in budget cuts were announced for Spokane schools.

At that time, gymnastics, boys’ golf and pep band were at risk but ultimately were spared.

Librarian service at the smallest elementary schools was cut to part time, and so was districtwide staff through attrition.

Teaching staff has continued to be reduced through attrition to meet declining enrollment, said Terren Roloff, district spokeswoman.

In fact, in five years the district has cut $30.5 million from the budget, Roloff said. That includes doing away with elementary sports, traffic safety programs and a truancy center, as well as cuts to central administration.

What’s coming next, Benzel has said, will be more painful.

“I was hired 20 years ago and there was this same conversation at this exact time of year then,” said Stephanie Leek, a longtime counselor at Holmes Elementary School. “I think every one of us loves our jobs; it’s very rewarding, but the uncertainty is hard at times.”

“It’s a roller coaster, and I think if we had adequate funding through state and the feds we would all just feel better,” Leek added.

At a meeting Monday for the parents of students who will be freshmen next year, Rogers High School student Taylor Belote said the conversation quickly turned to whether fine arts would be cut from his school.

“Our principal assured the parents it would not be” because fine arts is a requirement for graduation, said Belote, 18. But that wasn’t much comfort to the senior, who performs with the school’s steel drum band.

“It seems like music is always the first thing you hear about,” Belote said. “It really bothers me.”