I would like to take this opportunity to share some good news with you regarding next school year.

First, let me thank the greater Anacortes community for its overwhelming passage of our District’s four-year M&O Levy. The Maintenance & Operation Levy in February passed by a 76.38 percent yes vote, the highest percentage “yes vote” in the state. Our students, staff, and parents are extremely grateful.

The M&O Levy supports the annual cost of running our schools and accounts for approximately 26 percent of our day-to-day operating budget. Levy dollars pay for textbooks, teaching staff, technology, science programs, transportation, smaller class sizes, and state/ federal unfunded mandates. The Anacortes School District is very grateful to the community for its continued support of our public schools. Thanks also to our Levy Chair, Marie Christensen, and her crew for a successful levy campaign.

Two months ago the State Legislature adjourned and eliminated more than $600,000 to Anacortes schools. How is this good news for our schools for next school year? Answer: While it is not good news, these cuts are not as deep as we anticipated. Between state cuts and declining enrollment, the district will still see a reduction of $1.1 million from this coming year’s budget. Although this is a significant amount of money, the legislative cuts were far less than expected.

Will these additional budget cuts be felt by students?

Ultimately, we try to make our budget reductions away from what matters the most in terms of student growth and achievement: Quality instruction in the classroom. The good news is we believe our budget cuts will not be significantly felt by Anacortes students. Most of the program changes were made over the previous two years and we anticipate few changes for this upcoming school year.

What does this mean for staff?

Deep budget cuts over the last two years forced us to make adjustments to staffing and programs that were felt by all Anacortes staff and students.

This coming year, between staff attrition (retirements and resignations), elimination of temporary positions and prudent fiscal planning we will not have to see a Reduction in Force (RIF). Staff reductions will occur through attrition. We have issued contracts to all our current full-time certificated continuing contracted instructional staff and classified staff.

We will have fewer classes due to declining enrollment, but our continuing contracted staff will be back next year.

What about declining enrollment?

We anticipate a continuation of declining enrollment for Anacortes School District and have carefully factored this in to our planning. As our school district gets smaller, this will result in additional changes to staff assignments at our schools, and some staff may have to split their time between buildings or be relocated to another building. It may also lead to a few students being transferred from one elementary school to another on any given year.

Will class sizes change?

Generally speaking, when economic times are difficult and funding is reduced and/or cut, school districts eventually have to raise class sizes. That is not our priority, and our goal is always to maintain class sizes within reasonably funded parameters. This does get harder to do as State and Federal cuts continue.

Will programs be cut?

We are not anticipating any major program changes but we will continue to re-examine our programs and reductions will be made to various program.

What does the future look like for Anacortes School District?

Although it is hard to predict further than a year out, we believe that Anacortes School District will continue to see declining enrollment. Our best prediction is that this trend will level off over the next few years at about 2,400 fulltime students in the district. We also anticipate the State making significant budget cuts to education in the next biennieum.

While we are not facing major cuts to staffing and programs this year, we need to plan cautiously for next year. Between declining enrollment, stimulus funding ending, anticipated reduction in State resources, and the loss of some categorical funds and grants we, like other districts, could be facing further program and staffing reductions in the future. We will need to continue our prudent fiscal practices and manage our resources throughout the district in the most cost efficient manner.

What does the future look like for Anacortes students?

The future is bright for Anacortes students! Thanks to the passage of the M&O Levy and continued prudent financial budgeting, we are planning for a smaller, but more efficient school district. Students will continue to have highly competent teachers, small class sizes compared to most districts, and programs preparing them for a highly competitive world.

Our focus and goals in Anacortes School District remain the same. We are determined to get more and more of our students School Ready, Transition Ready, and College/Work Ready.

We are seeing higher and higher percentages our students reaching these standards and goals. Next year we will continue offering full-day kindergarten classes and early childhood education programs. We will also provide support programs to ensure our students successfully transition to the next level. We will increase the number of college level advance placement classes at the high school and offer further educational opportunities in career and technical education (CTE programs) through our high school and the Northwest Career and Technical Academy.

We are determined to help all our students have the skills they need to thrive in their futures. We are tremendously grateful for the support of our families as well as the entire Anacortes community.If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Sincerely, Superintendent Chris Borgen