School district ponders likely state cuts

School district Business and Finance Director Lisa Matthews told Thursday night’s meeting of the school board that, as it stands now, the district could lose around $900,000. But, she stressed that it’s too early in the budget process.

School superintendent Chris Borgen suggested the income loss could be close to $1 million. He said, “We’ll see a pretty decent impact.” The school district budget for the coming year is $26.4 million.

The budget presented by Gregoire this week has massive cuts in spending for public schools, but she immediately said it’s a budget she can’t support. She said she was required to present a balanced budget, so that’s what she did: cuts in spending with no tax increases.

But, she said she can’t support many of the cuts in the budget and that she anticipated having a new proposal in January that would eliminate some of those cuts, along with some tax increases.

New school board member Karl Yost said that maybe it’s time to look for alternative revenue sources. Fellow board member Mitch Everton said “I’d like to look at priorities at an early point.”

The school board decided to take a closer look at spending in February after it’s a bit clearer what the state legislature may do with the budget. The state anticipates a $2.6 billion revenue shortfall in the coming year.

Meanwhile, the school district is asking for a 4-year levy to replace the existing levy, starting in 2011. The levy request goes to the voters in early February with no increase from the current year.