In order to close a half-million dollar budget gap, Oak Harbor School District Superintendent Rick Schulte named a number of changes the board intends to make next year to cut costs and increase revenue.
Students can expect to see increased prices on lunches, athletic fees, ASB cards and longer commutes to and from school on the bus.
Schulte will propose to increase lunch prices by 15 cents next year due to increasing food and fuel costs, a loss of state funding that equates to 4 cents per meal and other factors. Currently, Oak Harbor’s prices range from 31 cents to 49 cents below the average costs of school meals in 26 other comparable districts. According to Schulte, the district is operating the lunch program on a break-even basis only, and the extra 15-cent cost won’t put Oak Harbor above state averages.
Students will also need to shell out extra to participate in athletics and activities in the 2011-2012 school year.
To generate about $8,000, the middle schools and high school will increase the fee for playing a second sport and add a fee for the third. The new fee schedule would be $100 for the first sport, $75 for the second and $50 for the third. Additionally, the cost of the ASB card, which allows students to get into events at discount prices, will jump by $5.
Schulte said the district plans to cut a number of athletic jamborees and tournaments in hopes of saving about $10,000. If specific teams want to participate in one of the cut events, they’ll need to raise money on their own. The district may also look into selling advertising on the fences along its ball fields, reserved seating and reserved parking to bring in some extra cash.
In total, the board members estimate that the changes will save the district about $25,000 to $30,000.
And though the district already eliminated mid-day busing through a change to its kindergarten format, saving about $60,000, the district still faces a deficit of nearly $500,000 in its transportation fund. Next year, school routes may operate more like those of Island Transit, with fixed routes and fewer stops, which Schulte estimates will add about 30 minutes to current hour-long commutes.
“The effect will be felt by those students at the end of those longer routes and by the students who have to walk to a point outside their neighborhood rather than the bus going inside the neighborhood to them,” Schulte said.
Other proposed cuts included $100,000 total from technology equipment, art, library, physical education and music budgets, reductions in annual paid work days for non-represented administrative staff and annual workdays for building administrators.
“These cuts are going to accumulate and eventually we’re going to reach the point where it’s just not working well at all,” Schulte said, mentioning that he feared a day will come when the district will be stuck with textbooks that are outdated by decades.
A number of classified and administrative staff may also receive reduction-in-force notices this spring and summer, though the board members are unsure how many positions they’ll need to cut. At a board meeting on Monday, the members listed the operations director, facilities director, instructional aides, clerical staff and custodians as among those who may be seeing “pink slips.”
Board member Corey Johnson said that as the board moves forward with cuts, he hopes they’ll make them as equitable as possible.
“It’s really hard not to acknowledge that there’s real people that we’re talking about with those jobs,” he said.
The district is waiting to find out which budget proposals will pass through the state Legislature before finalizing their decisions. The Legislature entered into a special session Tuesday, April 26, to work on passing a budget.
“Just as everybody’s pulled together in a bit of survival mode, I think it’ll be important to keep our eyes on a collaborative goal, and that’s student learning,” board member Peter Hunt said.
The school board will meet next at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, May 9, at the Administrative Service Center, 350 S. Oak Harbor St.
