Tight budget with tough choices for La Conner Schools

Beset with declining student enrollment and the loss of federal emergency pandemic funding, La Conner Schools officials are bracing to adopt what finance chief David Cram has termed a “bare bones” budget July 31. A 9 a.m. public hearing in the campus administration building precedes the vote.

The fiscal plan is designed to rebuild the district’s dwindling fund balance, shrunk in large measure by reduced state financial support resulting from a decreased student population.

But it comes at the cost of painful personnel cuts across the board – impacting classified, certified and administrative staff alike – and a major reshuffling of duties within the district.

Superintendent Will Nelson informed district employees of the most recent reductions in force (RIFs) in an email earlier this month. It stated that the budget will require additional cuts of $700,000 entering the 2023-24 school year.

“You can imagine the huge deficit we were in and now the extreme situation where we have to continue reducing our expenses,” he lamented. “This was achieved by making more staffing changes and further reducing expenditures in other areas.

“This required us to, unfortunately, reduce in force our Director of Operations, Bobby Vaughn and not to hire our assistant principal position,” Nelson wrote.

Vaughn has overseen district facilities initiatives and in the second half of the school year helped administer the transportation department after its longtime director Kim Pedroza (now a board member) took a similar assignment with the Stanwood School District.

La Conner Middle and High School Principal Tanya Houle, also director of the district’s career and technology education program, resigned at the end of the school year, reportedly to return home to North Dakota.

C.J. Woods, the athletics director and high school boys’ basketball coach, recently resigned to accept a coaching-A.D. position in Arizona.

Christine Tripp, the middle and high school principal, will add the athletics director role to her workload. Technology director Ryan Hiller will likely assume the CTE post vacated by Houle’s resignation.

“Additionally,” said Nelson, “we had to create another split (classroom) at the elementary school.”

The changes don’t end there.

Teaching and Learning Director Beth Clothier will handle federal grant programs. Cram will take on district operations and Nelson will pick up the special programs portfolio that had been administered by Andy Wheeler, who retired in June.

Nelson’s website letter states “valued teachers, impacting 8 individuals, received notification that their contracts with the La Conner School District for the 2023-2024 academic year will not be renewed or will be reduced.” That “equals 4.18 FTEs, not 8 FTE positions,” the website stated. An FTE is a full-time-equivalency, or one position.

Nelson, however, closed his missive with some good news.

He confirmed that the district has received a $39,000 small rural schools achievement program grant and funding through the regional educational services district and the Stronger Together Connections program for two staff positions, one of which would be a mental health counselor.

Nelson noted the district has submitted its application for a 21st Century Community Learning Center grant that enables expansion of the Braves Club program. Nelson said the district will learn the status of its application by Aug. 31.

The school board has a policy of maintaining a fund balance equal to 10 per cent of the district budget. That translates to just over $1 million. Even with sweeping budget cuts, Cram forecasts an ending fund balance for 2023-24 at around $100,000. He expects it will take two to three years to again reach the 10 per cent threshold.

He has told the board that school districts across the state and nation are grappling with similar enrollment and budget issues in the aftermath of the pandemic.

One national study has found that there are two million fewer students in America’s public schools than was the case prior to COVID-19. Here, the full-time student count has fallen from 600 in grades K-12 at the outset of the pandemic to an estimated 490 pupils this fall.

Cram has repeatedly pointed out that student enrollment is the main driver of state funding support of the public schools.

A La Conner alum who has served as finance director at several larger school districts in the Puget Sound region, Cram began his career here a generation ago when the district flirted with a student population of 700.

Cram returned for a second tour on the Schools administration team in March.