With the failure of the Centralia School District’s levy all but certain days before election certification, the Centralia School Board held a special meeting Wednesday to take the first steps toward making budget cuts for the 2023-2024 school year.
“None of these things that we talk about tonight are things we really want to talk to you about … and yet, we're in a situation where we've got to make some difficult and challenging decisions. And at times, we feel like there isn't a right answer, so we have to figure out what's the best answer,” Centralia Superintendent Lisa Grant said during the board discussion on Wednesday.
The final results of the April 25 special election were released Friday morning and showed the Centralia School District’s levy proposal failing by just 74 votes: 2,740 to 2,667, or 50.68% to 49.32%.
Because levy collections run on calendar years and not school years, the budget for the 2023-2024 school year would still include some of the amount collected from the levy that expires at the end of this year, which amounts to a total of about $4.6 million. The district can include about $2.1 million of those levy funds in the 2023-2024 budget, but that budget will still have to include roughly $2.5 million in proposed cuts.
Those cuts, wherever in the budget they occur, will likely impact staffing and enrollment, Grant said.
A significant enrollment decline would lead to additional funding losses for the district, since the state allocates money for school districts on a per-student basis.
Based on the enrollment decline the district experienced in 2020 after a levy failure, the district currently predicts it will lose approximately 5% of its current enrollment next year, which would mean a loss of about $1.7 million, Grant said.
Those estimated funding losses mean the district will need to cut about $4.2 million total from the 2023-2024 school year budget.
For reference, the Centralia School District’s 2022-2023 budget was roughly $64.85 million, up from about $51.59 million in 2021-2022 and $48.13 million in 2020-2021.
That 2020-2021 budget was the result of a $11.9 million budget reduction the district made after its levy renewal failed on the ballot. The reduction resulted in layoffs the summer of 2020.
“I’ve read a little bit of scuttlebutt in the community like, ‘Well my budget is smaller, so (now) your budget is smaller, so figure out where to tighten,” board vice chair Mandi McDougall said. “Well, we’re really cutting upon cutting from 2020 … You can only cut so much before we start to lose other things because we can’t effectively do our job.”
The board did not make any budget decisions on Wednesday; rather, the discussion was centered around a working document of possible areas where the budget could be trimmed so board members could figure out their priorities ahead of meetings scheduled for next week, where, because the district is required to notify staff of any layoffs by May 15, the board will have to make decisions.
Possible budget cuts that were presented in the working document Wednesday included decreasing the athletics and band budgets, as well as cutting a strings teacher position, eliminating summer school for 2023-2024, reducing the staff travel budget, cutting one of two Highly Capable Program (HiCAP) positions, eliminating a staff wellness day, eliminating “non-essential” software such as Canvas, canceling the contract with the Centralia Police Department for a currently-unfilled school resource officer position, backing out of its contract with the City of Centralia for use of the Centralia Community Pool and more.
“I want to reiterate, we're not making decisions tonight,” Grant said Wednesday. “What you're going to see on this list is actually more than $4.2 million because we need to look at everything and anything. And there could be adjustments, you may say, ‘Why don't you think of this?’ ‘Go research that.’ ‘What about doing this instead?’ And that's kind of what we need and want so that by next week, when we come back, we are much closer and then we can make those final decisions,” Grant said.
The board will continue its discussion during a study session at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, May 10, followed by a 6 p.m. special meeting where community members can make public comments and the board will formally make some budget decisions.
Finalization of the 2023-2024 budget will take place in June.
