by Kate Martin
BURLINGTON — The Burlington-Edison School Board voted on tentative budget cuts Monday that include 15 full-time teaching and counseling positions if some of the state’s worst budget projections come true.
The board trimmed $1.2 million out of the district budget for the coming school year based on some legislative projections for the annual budget. Burlington-Edison officials are waiting to see what happens to $1.7 million in money for class-size reduction it would lose if the Senate version of the state budget passes. The class-size measure was approved by voter initiative in 2000.
District officials do not expect to hear the results of a reconciled House-Senate budget until later this month. While state law says school districts must notify teachers of layoffs by May 15, the Burlington-Edison district contract requires notification by April 15.
Among the possible cuts are 8.5 positions at the kindergarten through eighth-grade level, 2.5 high school teaching positions, 1.5 counselor positions, 1.5 teachers from the highly capable students program, and one teacher from the full-time kindergarten program, according to documents presented Monday.
Superintendent Laurel Browning said she and Assistant Superintendent Jeff Drayer will notify about 20 teachers of a potential reduction in force over the next three days.
The district is also considering a participation fee for extracurricular activities if more cuts are needed, she said.
“We might still have to come up with another $20,000 to $50,000 with reductions in paper use, or reductions in curriculum,” Browning said. “This is a devastating amount.”
The School Board also authorized cutting hours for classified employees by 75 hours per day.
Burlington-Edison’s classified employee union president, Sherry Hodgin, an instructional assistant for visually impaired students, said employees knew cuts were coming, but the magnitude was unknown.
About 230 people work in classified positions for the district. Classified employees include bus drivers, custodians, cooks, maintenance staff, secretaries and instructional assistants. Hodgin said schedules vary widely, from two hours per day as a bus driver up to eight hours per day as a custodian.
“Every time a student loses a teacher, a cook, an instructional assistant, a custodian — any of those — it significantly affects them,” Hodgin said. “They don’t have the extra attention they need to be as successful in the classroom.”
The latest round of potential cuts assumes that student enrollment remains steady. Browning said if the Legislature cuts less than expected, she would restore positions in kindergarten through eighth-grade classrooms first.
“We would start looking at class sizes and see what we could retain,” she said.
The district’s proposed budget cuts would increase class sizes in some subjects to 35 students in the district.
“Thirty-five kids in a classroom is a nightmare,” said board member Marty Lopez.
Browning said class sizes at the kindergarten level could rise to 34 students. Kindergarten classrooms in the district now have between 20 and 28 students.
Districts across the state are preparing for the cuts to I-728 funds and cuts in money to school districts with a low property tax base, called levy equalization funds. The money amounts to millions of dollars for school districts in Skagit County.
A representative for the Burlington-Edison teachers’ union could not be reached for comment Monday.
