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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

CV board adopts budget

Increase due primarily to cost-of-living increase

The Central Valley school board Monday adopted a 2008-09 budget that calls for fewer teachers to serve about the same number of students.

The $111.4 million general fund budget is up about 4.7 percent from 2007-08, mainly because of a 4.4 percent cost-of-living increase awarded by the Legislature.

The new budget also includes a 0.7 percent pay raise for teachers only, designed to bring Central Valley and other districts into line with “grandfathered” salaries in some higher-paying districts.

While salaries are going up, the district’s budget-driving enrollment is expected to remain flat at 11,640 – up just 11 from the previous school year.

Finance Director Jan Hutton said salaries account for 87.75 percent of the general fund budget. Some classified workers’ hours were cut, and the equivalent of 18.4 full-time teaching positions was eliminated through attrition, Hutton said.

She said the budget calls for a 4 percent cash carryover at the end of the year, as directed by the school board.

Including four special budgets – for capital projects, debt service, associated student body funds and vehicle purchases – Central Valley’s total outlay in the coming school year totals nearly $126.4 million.

The board unanimously approved the budgets with members Cindy McMullen and Debra Long absent. There was no public comment.

The board also unanimously approved a proposal to begin offering special services to disabled children, from newborns to 3-year-olds.

Directors will consider a contract that would have the Spokane County Regional Health District and subcontractors provide the services at an upcoming meeting.

Special Education Director Jacque Johnson said having numerous agencies provide services, instead of contracting with a single provider, will give parents more flexibility.

She said the services would be paid entirely with money passed down by the state Department of Social and Health Services.

Johnson’s written report to the board said an average of 50 children would benefit from a $267,878 expenditure in the coming year.

Central Valley was among five of Spokane County’s 14 school districts that don’t offer “early intervention” for infants and toddlers. By September 2009, all districts will be required by the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to provide the service.

Also Monday, the school board gave first reading to a new policy on e-mail retention. The policy is aimed at reducing exponential growth in the amount of data stored on the district’s network servers.

Technology supervisor Dick Burrill said in an interview that e-mail storage has grown an average of 509 percent a year since 2001. The district currently stores 293 gigabytes of e-mails, compared with just 8 gigabytes in 2001.

The new policy calls for e-mails to be deleted after 120 days unless they’re archived on network hard drives separate from the server. Currently, e-mails are never deleted automatically.

Employees will be assigned off-server “folders” where they can store e-mails and documents indefinitely.

In a report that didn’t require action, Human Resources Director Neva Ringwald said the district “would be home free” in its federal obligation to provide sports for girls if it could find a way to make high school cheerleading and the rally-dance squads more competitive.

The squads have some competitions, but not the “ongoing seasonal schedule” necessary to qualify as a sport, Ringwald said.

She said girls are disproportionately represented in traditional sports in the district’s middle schools, but their interests shift to activities such as cheerleading, dance and vocal music in high school.

A biennial survey indicated the district offers the top two sports girls want – volleyball and tennis – but they would like to have a swimming team, Ringwald said.

She said swimming would be “very difficult” to offer because CV schools have no pools and the Greater Spokane League has no competitive swimming.