B.G. school budget gets boost from levy hike

A big hike in the local property tax that supports Battle Ground Public Schools’ operating budget, starting next spring, allowed district leaders to write a 2010-11 budget that doesn’t chip away at school classrooms or staffing.

For officials, it’s a welcome change.

But they didn’t exactly go nuts. Not when facing the end of a two-year federal stimulus boost and the chilling prospect of further reductions in Washington state education funding.

A $124.5 million operating budget adopted by the Battle Ground school board on Saturday — an increase of $9.8 million, or about 8.5 percent, from last year — contains few big additions.

“There’s nothing fat, nothing spectacular about it,” said Steve Pagel, board president, after the 5-0 panel vote.

“We’re still thin. We are fortunate that we have levy dollars to work with,” he said. “But for all schools, the financing uncertainty in Washington remains. Things could still happen.”

All school employee groups (teachers, administrators, support staff) did regain much of the 3.8 to 4 percent in salary reductions they absorbed the past two years.

Still, they remain about 1 percent shy of 2008 pay levels, when accounting for salary, unpaid furlough days and reductions in paid nonteaching/training days.

The district will double its alarmingly thin unreserved fund balance, to $1 million by August 2011.

Leaders chose to allocate $800,000 more for school site repairs; another $400,000 for curriculum replacement and updating; $155,000 more to upgrade technology labs at Pleasant View, Maple Grove and Laurin middle schools; $75,000 more for high school Associated Student Body activities, some paying for coaching, athletic trainers and other supplies; and $30,000 more for middle school extracurricular programs.

Otherwise, classrooms and other programs will remain mostly at the status quo when school starts on Sept. 8.

“We have to be careful what we obligate ourselves to,” said Mary Beth Lynn, district finance director. “We just took the real conservative approach to budgeting, knowing the recession isn’t over and the state budget is still in a precarious situation.”

New funding

Battle Ground voters in February approved a three-year replacement maintenance and operations property tax levy that will bring in $20.5 million in 2011. That’s a hefty leap from this year’s $13.7 million.

The district will collect about $4.2 million of that increase during the coming school year, Lynn said.

A big energy conservation push that includes new grant dollars should provide another $2.3 million. And the district stands to gain about $2.5 million to retain teachers through a $26 billion “jobs-saving” package just approved by Congress, once Olympia officials figure how and when to distribute pass-through dollars, Lynn said.

District enrollment should rise to about 12,700 full-time equivalent students in 2010-11. The increase of 229 students would bring in another $1 million or so in state basic education money.

What the $10 million-higher budget will mean is fewer overcrowded classrooms. Driven by grade-level enrollments, some schools may gain a classroom teacher and a new class section, Lynn said.

Fewer district classrooms will approach contract-negotiated “overload” levels experienced the past few years. That means fewer elementary and middle school classes of 30 or so students, or high school classrooms that near 40 students each.

More substantial changes must wait for a gloomy economic and state budget cloud to lift.

Battle Ground’s federal stimulus funds were nearly $8 million last year, which helped spare all but 20 schoolteacher and counselor positions from the chopping block. This year brings $4.6 million in stimulus dollars, with no follow-up in sight.

The district’s new 8.5 percent budget hike follows a 2 percent decrease in 2009-10.