And So Let the Seattle Schools' Budget Games Begin!

Superintendent Brent Jones and senior staff presented what they said was part one of the discussion of next year's budget. (Part Two will be next Wednesday, the 10th, probably around 4:30 pm. It will be streamed live on the SPS channel on YouTube.) 

First, a detour. 

I'll confess that I did not watch all of the Work Session. My main issue was because  - for whatever reason - they had about 45 minutes of the Work Session and then stopped to put forth the Board proclamation on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Day for May 5, 2023. The proclamation is at the end of the documentation attached to the agenda. That break made it difficult for me to get back to the work session.

FYI, the proclamation uses this terminology:

WHERAS (sic), MMIP is an acronym inclusive to all our Indigenous relatives including LGBTQ+2Spirit
and is alternatively written as MMIWG, MMIP2S, MMIW.

I did not know what 2Spirit meant and here's the definition:

Two-Spirit” is a term used within some Indigenous communities, encompassing cultural, spiritual, sexual and gender identity.

Another notable part of the proclamation:

WHEREAS, most recent 2022 Seattle Public Schools School Climate data indicates American Indian and Alaska Native teen students have the lowest overall rates of experiencing belonging, social emotional well-being, equity and, in particular, student voice at 64%, fourteen percentage points below the next lowest group; and 

I point this out because the district seemed to have little discussion over what group was going to get the Strategic Plan targeted universalism and that stat above seems like a compelling reason to perhaps having the designation going to Native American students. 

I am dismayed to see this:

THEREFORE, Seattle School Board encourages District data collection tools such as student
climate survey, Healthy Youth Survey, Youth Risk Behavior Survey and SBIRT (Screening, Brief
Intervention and Referral to Treatment) are disaggregated by student race/ethnicity and
evaluation with AI/AN via focus groups for recommended District action and policy

I'll say it again - SBIRT is an unproven and non-peer reviewed tool that is invasive and gathers a big heaping service of student data.  Director Hampson could have just written "data collection" but she decided to name all the student data collection tools. Hmmm.

To the budget discussion. (I am using the numbering that is directly on the pages.)

For whatever reason, President Brandon Hersey and Director Michelle Sarju were not in attendance. I find this baffling because this work session, above all others, is the most important work there is. Sadly, that meant that Vice-President Chandra Hampson ran the meeting (per her usual, she urged directors to ask short questions - again, this is the most important work they do). Apparently Hampson left after the proclamation.

- Staff is going to use the ENTIRE Economic Stabilization Fund (Rainy Day Fund), at $42.2M to fill the budget gap. (This will be spread out over two years.) That means if there is any dire emergency like an earthquake, the district will have nothing to help that situation. However, there is Board policy on this fund and the district will have to start a repayment plan in 24-25, trying to put in about $6M a year. The only precedent named was in 2001-2002 when leadership used all of that. (I would suspect that was when there was an internal financial crisis.)

- Page 5 is a hoot: Lessons learned during the 23-24 process. Elsewhere in this document we see admissions like this one which make me say, "C'mon! You haven't learned these lessons yet?"

- Page 6 is a something of an oddity because they claim they "listened" and took school closures off the list, athletic fees and no 3-tier transportation solution. School closures for next year could NOT have happened; there's a whole state process for that and staff knows it. As for athletic fees, well, we ALWAYS protect that program above all. 

- Page 11 is how they have closed a lot of the budget gap. They claim that school closures will save $28M. Naturally, they don't throw in the actual COSTS of doing so which exist and can be great. Closing a building is not just locking the door.

Apparently there will be more Special Education dollars via SB 5311 - over $9M in 23-23 and over $4M in 24-25. 

They are also extending moving maintenance costs to the Capital fund ($4M). As I have said before, you'd get very dizzy trying to figure out what exactly is happening with Capital dollars. I will say the staff's party line of "We can't use Capital dollars for the General Fund" is just nonsense. No, you can't move capital dollars to the General Fund but you sure CAN use Capital dollars to cover General fund expenses if you move those costs over to Capital.

This leaves them in still in the hole about $21M for next year and nearly $35M for school year after that.

- Page 12 was a surprise. I thought they had to use up all the ESSER funds this school year. Apparently not and they have nearly $6M. 

They also have "Central Office/programmatic reductions" to the tune of nearly $32M. What that actually means, I don't know. I might go back and listen to see if this got defined. 

- Page 13, staff asks "What is the most important thing you are curious about or have
learned from the last series of presentations?" Curious!?

- Page 26  Summary of Central Office Adjustments FY 23-24. There are no cuts to either the Superintendent's budget nor the Board budget. The budget for the Board this school year is $5,227,397 and for the Superintendent, $6,636,857.

Folks, NEVER have I seen the Board office budget much more than $1M. What the Board is doing with over $5M is anybody's guess.

- Page 28  Proposed Transportation Changes - the impacts would "affect all schools" and "impacts start and end times for 12 elementary and K-89 schools. Plus "reduce non-standard routes" like those for some high schools and middle schools. "Inclusive transportation for students with IEPs."Altogether, these changes would save about $7M.

The tiering changes would impact bell times for: South Shore K-8, Green Lake, View Ridge, West Woodland, John Hay, Dearborn Park, Concord, TOPS K-8, Thurgood Marshall, Adams, Licton Springs and Bailey Gatzert.

The high schools affected would be Ballard, Ingraham, Lincoln, Chief Sealth and Cleveland.

- Page 30 "Reduce contract services" and one of them is...."reduce outside legal services." No kidding but please staff, tell this to Director Hampson. 

-Page 32  "Central Administration staffing reduced by approximately 10%. Includes those activities related to management, regulation and control at the district level." If I were a director, I would want that sentence dissected and detailed out.