By Doug Barker

The Daily World

The Aberdeen School District is facing a financial crisis that will mean layoffs of teachers, administrators and support staff. Six weeks ago, it looked like the district would be about $2 million short of what it needed for the 2020-21 school year and significant cuts were expected. Now, with funding sources compromised by the COVID pandemic and enrollment declining, the figure is $6.5 million and deep cuts are a certainty.

The school board was briefed Wednesday by Superintendent Alicia Henderson and financial director Elyssa Louderback and approved a resolution that directs Henderson to work with staff to find the reductions. That’s the process that will determine the details, how many will be laid off and how the district will handle spending for such things as extra-curricular activities and anything but the very basics, Henderson said. About 80% of the district’s budget is for personnel costs.

Henderson said the district has been advised by local and state authorities, which provide most of the funding, that tax collections are likely to be down significantly as people delay paying property taxes and in some cases default altogether. That will hit the budget in the middle of the next school year. And Henderson said she’s been told that property values are likely to decline, which would further depress collections in future years.

State education officials have said the state isn’t coming to the rescue because it will be stretched thin from funding unemployment, family support services and a broad range of COVID-19 expenses, Henderson said.

District officials and a 22-member citizens advisory budget committee that includes educators, parents and community members, have already been working on a plan for spending reductions, but that started before the pandemic and was prompted by changes in the state funding formula and shrinking enrollment, which means less state money. That was the $2 million deficit. The COVID-related problems mean an estimated $4.3 million more in lost revenue. The superintendent said they are now working in earnest to decide the hard details, but she indicated it would mean layoffs.

“There’s no question there will be fewer total employees in the district, and that will be in all employee groups, certified, classified and administration,” she said.

To complicate things more, the district can’t be sure what it’s budgeting for. Henderson has been researching a concept called scenario-based budgeting and planning. She said they are looking at three basic scenarios for next school year. One is starting school in the fall with conditions as they are, teaching remotely with school buildings closed. Another would be a hybrid that might mean students physically are in school, but on staggered schedules so their contact in groups is minimal. The third would be to plan for a relatively normal school year. “That one,” she said, “as the days go on, appears less and less likely, at least for fall.”

Henderson was part of a briefing Wednesday with the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. “The uncertainty was staggering, just staggering,” she said.

Henderson said the district’s reserves aren’t a solution. The board wants to maintain a reserve fund of 5% and the district has to think both short-term and long-term, she said. “We’re talking about the long haul, so our school district will survive.”

Projections developed for the budget advisory committee indicate that by 2024, at current spending levels, the reserve would be at minus 15%, and that was presented March 7, before the pandemic was a factor.

The tone of the school board meeting Wednesday was somber.

School board member Bill Dyer, a former teacher in the district, read a statement signed by all board members.

“As elected officials, school directors are responsible for safeguarding the school district as a community resource. We consider both public opinion and what we know about a given situation when making a decision. Sometimes the loudest voices are not representative of the larger community’s opinion. We always weigh all competing interests — various public opinions, budget considerations, policies, potential impacts, and sustainability — to try to make the best decisions,” reads part of the statement.

“Please continue to contact us and district administration for clarifications and facts. It is every citizen’s duty to find and share the truth,” read the statement to the public.

Retirements could mean savings. But attrition and a hiring freeze won’t be enough, Henderson said.

The superintendent seemed a little numbed that it was the second year in a row for her to come to the board asking for a resolution that authorized her to make cuts that would mean layoffs. The cuts made last year resulted in about 40 fewer district employees for the current school year. Some of those were part-time, but even part-timers receive benefits in many cases and those were lost.

The personnel decisions have to be made now because by law, teacher contracts have to be offered by May 15.

“The last thing I would have ever have expected is to be doing this tonight,” she said at the meeting, which was conducted remotely via Zoom teleconferencing. She said the budgeting cues she is getting from state and local authorities is that her district doesn’t have the option of cutting conservatively.

“If we were a larger district and had reserves … but we don’t.” she said.

Possibly making things even harder is that enrollment seems to be falling. The district had noticed it before schools were closed last month. From January to March 7, high school enrollment dropped by 50 students. And now when it would be time to count students again, that’s complicated. If a student or family isn’t in touch with the district, is it because they moved, or because there’s a technical issue or other problems?

Henderson is going to lobby legislators and state authorities to give schools a “hold harmless” status that would essentially freeze enrollment numbers from the start of this school year. “Enrollment is the key indicator for all funding streams. With declining enrollment, that is devastating to us,” she said.

If the Legislature is reluctant to help bail out schools, the state could at least not penalize schools for falling enrollment, she said. And it would also help if the state could look for ways to ease up on rules and regulations that will be more burdensome in this climate, she said.

Although the most serious effects aren’t expected to hit until next school year, right now, the district is starting feel the cost burden of providing child care for children of first responders, which was a directive to school districts from Gov. Jay Inslee, and for providing lunches to students, another directive from the state. “I’m really concerned about the food service program. We’re providing food for students and there have been huge turnouts, but the funding for it is drying up,” she said.

The district already had budget trouble because of a state funding formula that puts some low-income districts at a disadvantage.

“It saddens us that one result of this health crisis is a further disparity of funding between property-rich and property-poor school districts,” read the statement from the full board.

Dyer prodded citizens to contact their local legislators and urge them to make the issue understood to their fellow lawmakers.