A confluence of rising operational costs, a drop in enrollment and efforts to retain employees has Sequim School District leaders preparing to consider reductions to its staff totals.
Darlene Apeland, the district’s director of Business Operations and Finance, presented a financial picture to Sequim school board directors on April 11 that indicates some cuts may have to be made as school staff prepare the district’s annual budget for the 2022-2023 academic year.
“While we want to keep all of our staff … it will be difficult to maintain that [staffing level],” Apeland said.
“We must be frugal and responsible,” Sequim interim superintendent Joan Zook told directors. “In order to keep as many staff [as possible], something’s got to give.”
School districts in Washington state receive the majority of their revenue based on student enrollment, apportioned from the state. The school district has about 2,440 full-time equivalent (FTE) students as of April 2022 — down from about 2,700 FTEs in April 2019.
“Our enrollment is driving what our staff is supposed to be,” Apeland said.
Though many students were learning from home for portions of the previous two school years during the COVID-19 pandemic, Apeland said the district wanted to keep as many employees on staff for when they came back.
However, the cost of keeping those staff, along with rising costs in utilities and several other factors has depleted the district’s general fund balance, she said. With many costs fixed, along with anticipated but unknown expenditures heading into the next school year — among them, litigation and attorney fees for outstanding district complaints, fuel and food service costs and emergencies — district staff are anticipating some cuts may need to be made.
And those cuts may have to come from staffing levels, Sequim school leaders said.
“No one wants staff to leave,” Apeland said. “That’s the last thing that we want to do.”
About 82 percent of the school district’s $48 million budget goes to salaries and benefits of the approximate 446 employees, Apeland said; payroll spending is about $3 million each month. (The remaining expenditures are toward supplies, materials, curriculum, technology upgrades, utilities, contracted services, travel and other fees.)
“We tried to keep everybody working [during the pandemic] … but at a cost,” Apeland said.
“We’ve been very good about honoring what our staff gets; they work hard, and our students get the best education they can.”
The legal deadline to notify staff that positions may be eliminated through RIF (Reduction in Force) is May 15.
Seeking options
Teachers in the Sequim School District start out with salaries at about $52,406, and can earn as much as $102,724 with over 20 years of experience, Apeland said.
An unknown rising cost for the district is what the state will determine for the state-determined Implicit Price Deflator, or IPD, added to staffer salaries; a 2.8 percent increase would cost Sequim schools about $715,000, while a 5.5 percent increase would total about $1.4 million, Apeland said.
“The funding is all being pushed through to our staff and we’re still paying bills,” she said.
Some staffers could be retained as others leave the district or retire, but Zook said the number of staffers indicating they plan to retire this year is relatively small.
The district is also considering the addition of a preschool/transitional kindergarten program; board president Eric Pickens asked if adding that could alleviate having to cut staffing but rather shift some staffers to that service. However, Zook said that program wouldn’t be a large one at the outset and would come with its own costs, in addition to bringing up classroom space issues.
The district also wants to keep about 4-6 percent of its overall annual budget in the general fund, particularly in the case of unexpected major costs. The district already has one on the horizon, school officials said: the roof of the district’s transportation facility is broken and will need significant repairs.
“We don’t have an ending fund balance to replace that,” Apeland said.
Apeland and Zook said the district was seeking a decision about potential reductions to staffing levels by the April 25 meeting. However, Pickens said he’d like to get more information to directors in a special meeting before then.
“It seems to me we’ve painted ourselves into a corner financially,” director Larry Jeffryes said. “It sounds to me like we’re probably going to be asked to make a heavy decision next meeting.
“I would encourage us to consider every possible squeeze, every possible dime, to keep people.”
The board anticipates hosting a public hearing on the 2022-2023 budget on July 18 with budget adoption slated for Aug. 15.
Said board director Patrice Johnston, “There’s lot of things you have no control over. You just have to be realistic of what your options are.”
Naming committee to meet
Zook told directors on April 11 that a committee has been formed to address possible naming of the football stadium and other facilities.
That committee, one that includes representatives from the Sequim Alumni Association and the Sequim High principal, will meet in the next couple of weeks and may have something to the board by the end of May, she said,” if things go well.”
Ultimately the committee could bring up to three names for consideration, Zook said.
The alumni association has in recent months asked the school district to consider naming the athletic field on West Fir Street for Myron Teterud, a longtime Sequim High sports fanatic. Teterud, who rooted on SHS athletics for six decades, died on April 30, 2021.
