Next special meeting: 9 a.m. Thursday, Bates Center for Educational Leadership, 2921 Falk Road.
Proposed operating budget: $271 million.
Deadline to approve operating budget: Aug. 31.
Deadline to appoint fifth board member: Oct. 15.
School starts: Sept. 2.
With only one week until school begins, Vancouver Public Schools still does not have a budget.
For a third time in three weeks, the school board was gridlocked Tuesday on approving the $271 million operating budget for the school year that begins Sept. 2.
In a packed public meeting, the four school board members discussed the budget for three hours total in a work session and board meeting, but in the end, members voted as they had the two previous times: Board President Mark Stoker and Dale Rice voted to approve the budget. Kathy Gillespie voted no. Edri Geiger abstained. The board currently is without a fifth board member, and three yes votes are required to pass the budget.
The state requires the passage of a budget by Aug. 31, Stoker said following the meeting. He said he’s confident the district will have a budget by that deadline, but if that doesn’t happen, “my assumption would be that schools would not be able to open.”
Next special meeting: 9 a.m. Thursday, Bates Center for Educational Leadership, 2921 Falk Road.
Proposed operating budget: $271 million.
Deadline to approve operating budget: Aug. 31.
Deadline to appoint fifth board member: Oct. 15.
School starts: Sept. 2.
Stoker said the board will gather at 9 a.m. Thursday in a special meeting to try again.
If the board fails to approve the budget Thursday, they will meet again at 9 a.m. Friday. Stoker asked board members to be available to meet at 9 a.m. Saturday, Sunday and Monday, too, “if that’s what it takes,” he said.
The stalemate boils down to Gillespie and Geiger’s request for more counselors in schools.
At an Aug. 11 school board meeting, Gillespie and Geiger asked that at least one counselor be placed at every elementary school. A modified budget proposed at an Aug. 19 board meeting added the equivalent of 6.6 full-time elementary counselor positions, but Gillespie and Geiger asked that additional counselors be provided at middle and high schools as well.
Stoker began Tuesday’s meeting by reading a statement that included committing an additional $500,000 to hire six counselors for middle and high schools.
Under the new proposal, if the district’s conservative student enrollment projection proves true, the district will receive more money, and it could be used to pay for the additional counselors. But if the district’s actual enrollment falls short of projections, then the money to pay for additional counselors would come from reserves.
“The unassigned fund balance would only be used if projected enrollments didn’t materialize,” said Superintendent Steve Webb. “It doesn’t assume spending down the fund balance. There’s some moderate risk, but I’m moderately comfortable” taking that risk.
But Gillespie and Geiger questioned other aspects of district spending, including the proposed $691,000 travel budget and $980,000 communications budget, and whether those could be cut to provide more student services.
“I would be flabbergasted to think that inside our budget, there aren’t dollars that can be redirected for student needs,” Gillespie said.
Webb responded: “Let the record show that 95 percent of the budget goes toward classroom supports.”
Several of those testifying during the public comment period seemed fed up with a lack of progress on the budget.
“What is disturbing to me is that I don’t see people working together. This does not need to be an adversarial process,” said Julie Genz, a district parent. “Are there financial sacred cows? Why would any budget item be off limits? You are elected. Dig into that budget. There’s a refusal to do what should be done. The disdain in this room is sometimes palpable.”
Kathy Potter, a district resource officer at Columbia River High School, emphasized the importance of counselors in keeping kids safe.
“As a teacher at (Hudson’s Bay High School), I had kids bouncing off the walls coming down from a high,” Geiger said, adding that there were no drug counselors to help.
Rice said that everyone wants more counselors, but the district has to make sure it can afford them.
“It’s eight days until school starts,” Rice said. “This isn’t the time to nitpick at the budget.”
Geiger said she wanted another work session to look at specific budget numbers.
“I abstained because I want to pass a budget,” Geiger said. ” I agree with the $271 million. I don’t agree with the allocation.”
