Friday, December 12, 2008

Crowded classrooms coming to a school near you.

The Edmonds School District, like most, will have to cut to operate next year, even without new state cuts this session, officials said.

Officials declined to be interviewed, saying it was "too early" to talk about the subject, but responded to some questions via e-mail.

"If the state cuts us even more, it will result in us having to make further reductions," Debbie Jakala, district spokesperson, wrote in an e-mail. "While we would do our best to work with our staff and community as to how best do these, the magnitude of the reductions based on further state funding shortfalls could be extreme."

Last year, the district cut about $3 million, with cuts to special education and more. The year before, it cut $4.5 million and closed teaching positions.

Losing I-728 money would be devastating, as it would for all districts, Jakala wrote.

The district received almost $9 million in I-728 money last year, which funded about 78 full-time teachers. Mostly it goes to reducing class size, and the rest goes to teacher professional development and extended learning.


I wonder what sort of losses would be taken if Marla's Marsh was sold on today's market. I suspect the District's appraisal of $3,300,000 would be way too much. And that valuation assumed the absence of contamination - which was a theoretical assumption taken as fact by the Superintendent and the School Board.

I predict an increase in sales of frozen cheese sandwiches.

Blog: Read the rest of the article in Lynnwood's best newspaper, The Enterprise, by clicking here.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

And why did the district buy that land agian? and why did the district over pay? and why do we have so much management? and why are we cutting teachers? and why are we cutting maintence?

Anonymous said...

If possible, retiring before the beginning of the 09-10 school year will be a good idea. Teachers are not going to make more money next year. The district and the EEA might even have to open the "contract" and renegotiate things like "trigger" cause every class will probably be over "trigger" next year. It will be bleak for awhile, but that's just the cycle of life. Teachers were "riffed" during my first few years of teaching and now in the twilight (no reference to that vampire movie) of my career it's happening again.

Anonymous said...

One of the reasons that schools will be crowded is that management in ESD is crowded. Thin it out and roll back their exorbitant pay raises. The money is for kids not exorbitant executive pay levels and other paid perks. Handcuff the rascals right where it hurts, in the wallet!

Anonymous said...

I think the district needs to rethink the need for a new ESC. Put SLH students at WWE OR EG you know the district will lease those buildings. Not good enough for our students but good enough for other people. District history plays out.