CAMAS — Camas School District is looking at a roughly $3.7 million deficit for the upcoming school year after making staff cuts, an amount the district could make up with money from its fund balance.
Jasen McEathron, business services director for the district, gave an update on the district’s anticipated budget for the 2019-2020 school year at a school board workshop Monday night. He said that while the district might have a plan for the upcoming school year, more needs to be done to ensure the district’s future financial stability.
“We have to evolve as an organization,” McEathron said, adding the district might have to curtail expenditures while finding a sustainable model for the future of the district that doesn’t rely on cuts.
Earlier this year, district officials anticipated having an $8.2 million deficit for the upcoming school year.
The school board will vote to finalize a budget in late August, but the plan calls for Camas to cut around 20 teaching positions through attrition, eliminate six central office positions and 10 to 15 classified staff positions, some of which will be reductions in hours or the loss of part-time positions.
It’s anticipated those cuts would save about $4 million, giving the district that $3.7 million difference to make up.
During the presentation, McEathron said the district expects to have 466 full-time certified staff positions this school year, down from 483 in the last school year. The district expects to have about 280 full-time classified staff positions, down from 292 last school year.
Estimates originally planned for $4.32 million in cuts, but additional retirements and resignations resulted in $4.46 million in cuts, according to McEathron’s presentation. The biggest amount in cuts came in classified staffing, which was cut by $1.9 million.
The question district officials and the school board will have to work on now is how to provide services for students without needing to make cuts each year. One way could be increasing the local enrichment levy, which is set at $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed property value for 2019. That amount was the highest the district could ask for from taxpayers at the time.
This year, the Legislature passed a bill that lifts the cap on local school levies to $2.50 per $1,000 in assessed property value. The school board has until November to decide on the levy for 2020.
While Camas’ enrichment levy runs through 2021, the school board can raise it to the state cap because when the levy was approved by voters in 2017, it was for a higher amount than what the state currently allows for.
At $1.50 per $1,000, the levy would bring in an estimated $9.2 million to the district. When the original levy was approved by voters, the district anticipated collecting $16.1 million, $16.6 million, $17.1 million and $17.6 million throughout the four-year levy. The funds are used for additional positions, pay and benefits, special services, extracurricular activities, food service and transportation.
During his presentation, McEathron said the pros for increasing the levy would be to help preserve programs for students, mitigate the future risk of budget cuts and mitigating the reliance on money from the fund balance.
“Increasing the levy goes a long way toward that,” he said.
However, he added, increasing the levy does add to the tax burden of residents, who will already see an increase in the state schools tax starting in 2020.
