Wondering what’s going on with our school district budget and how to help? Our Advocacy Chair, Lanaya Waldron, has some tips.
Similar to many school districts in Washington, Shoreline school district has been working to address a multi-million dollar budget crisis for the upcoming 2023-24 school year and beyond. At the April 18th school board meeting district personnel presented a reduced educational plan in response to this financial gap, which was subsequently approved by the Board. This plan allows the school district to take action to eliminate jobs based on budgetary needs. This will have impacts district wide.
As a PTSA serving students, families and educators, we want to keep you informed of some potential upcoming impacts at Kellogg. At this time the reduced educational plan is not completely set in stone due to ongoing bargaining with labor groups.. However, as approved, it includes proposed elimination of the following staff next year at Kellogg:
- School security guard
- Nurse (reduced hours)
- Office support staff positions
- Library tech
- Family advocate
- Certificated staffing hours for zero period
Also of note, the reduced educational plan still leaves approximately $5 million dollars in spending cuts required before the district achieves a balanced budget, as required by the state, for next year. This means more areas to eliminate spending will need to be identified, most likely also in staffing district wide. This is even with the Board agreeing to reduce our district’s required percentage for a reserve fund (a financial safety net.) This decision of which positions will be eliminated will be finalized at the August 22nd board meeting.
Takeaways for our Kellogg Community:
- Share your thoughts with our school board and Superintendent on how these listed proposed staffing reductions will be likely to impact your student (or yourself if you are a student) and your family. If you would like to submit public comment for a board meeting, you can do so on the Agendas and Minutes webpage. Public comment links are active the Friday before a board meeting until noon on the day of the scheduled board meeting. Persons wishing to contact the entire Board by email may do so at school.board@ssd412.org. This will include the Superintendent, who serves as Secretary to the Board. You can also speak in person or via Zoom at the beginning of a board meeting. The next meeting is June 6th at 7:00 pm. Some things to know in advance are that verbal public comment is limited to two minutes and the Board is not allowed to directly respond to individual public comment.
- This budget crisis has several contributing causes, but a major factor is that Washington does not adequately fund public education, despite this being written into our state constitution. In the past Shoreline school district used to be able to cover more costs above what the state paid from generous community funding through levies, but we are no longer allowed to do this over a certain percentage per state law that began in 2019. Please contact your state legislators to let them know the impacts from our district cuts and how inadequate funding impacts us here in Shoreline. You can find out more information from the Shoreline PTA Council advocacy page.
- Next year Kellogg will need family involvement more than ever. Please join our PTA Facebook and Instagram pages and check our website for volunteer sign-ups. We will work with Kellogg administration to understand where parents/guardians can best pitch in to fill the gaps. We expect Kellogg to need volunteer help both during the school day and after hours, and even as little as an hour a week could help out tremendously. Please keep an eye out in the coming months for more information.
- Consider becoming a member of our PTSA. All of our voices matter. Not only are we stronger together, but we can also communicate with our membership directly more effectively. Scholarships are available.