Good morning!
As you may have heard, the Legislature finally passed the state budget. The forecast for state funding for the near future is still rather grim, but a long-term plan is in place for the state to fully-fund basic education by 2018.
Today, I am pleased to announce that our own budget reductions will be much less than originally anticipated. At this time, we expect net reductions for our district to come in around $500,000. This will be covered for the most part by the elimination of a state Learning Improvement Day (LID) and attrition. We will also need to continue to find efficiencies and continue to be good stewards of the resources that we are provided. That said, the good news is in short – no staff cuts.
This is possible in part because the state has raised the levy lid to 28 percent, providing the opportunity for districts to raise more local resources on their own. Though North Thurston Public Schools will not take advantage of this full amount, it will allow us to collect more local levy funding based on February’s election. While I am thankful that we will not need to make any significant reductions in our classrooms, and appreciate the tough decisions that legislators had to make this year - I am disappointed that they did not fulfill their constitutional responsibility and again passed the burden of Basic Education funding further onto the shoulders of local voters.
This is the least we have had to cut from our budget in many years and for that we should be grateful, but also not lose site of the task we all have in keeping full funding of basic education at the forefront of our district and state.
Thank you again for all you do each and every day for children despite these obstacles and tight resources. You are doing an amazing job for students and our community and I continue to be inspired by your dedication!
Sincerely,
Raj Manhas
No comments:
Post a Comment