Seattle Public Schools (SPS) will start the upcoming school year with a “stable” budget for the first time in years, and district officials are cautiously optimistic.
On July 24, the Seattle School Board unanimously passed three budgets for the 2013-14 academic year, including a $639 million general-fund budget made possible through funds from the state and local levies.
“This is the first time in many years we’ve seen an uptick in our funding, representing a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel,” board member Sherry Carr said during the meeting.
Among other things, the budget will allow the district to offer free all-day kindergarten in eight more schools, as well as hire more teachers, assistant principals and counselors to keep up with enrollment.
The budget includes additional revenue of roughly $46 million.
Joe Paperman, SPS budget manager, said that the budget means the district can stop using “one-time” dollars for “ongoing” expenditures, which the district has previously resorted to in order to fill budget gaps. An example, Paperman said, would be using funds intended for new textbooks to pay teachers’ salaries.
“We can catch up on things we’ve not been doing for the last several years,” he said. “We can move beyond just keeping the doors open and try to take steps forward.”
It is also the first time in several years that the district has seen a rise in per-student funding from the state.The increase reflects the McCleary decision — a 2012 Washington State Supreme Court ruling that said the state wasn’t meeting its constitutional duty to fund basic education.
The state has until 2018 to fully meet its obligation, but school board members lamented that the state is not on track to meet that deadline despite the increase in funds.
“I feel our state legislators need to do some very honest reflection,” said board member Marty McLaren.
Board members were clear that although the budget will help the district catch up after clamoring to keep pace with growing enrollment, it won’t do much more.
Over the next 10 years, enrollment is projected to increase by 7,000 students. While the new budget adds revenue, it only recovers a portion of federal and state cuts that have been made over the past five years.
“We think this doesn’t take all the pressure off,” Paperman said. “We still need to work toward being more efficient so we can free up money to reduce class size — those kinds of things. It’s not like we can just sit back.”