Some Time Off

Well, it has been over a week since I last shared anything. I took a few days off and sandwiched a weekend into the mix and I didn't turn on the computer for five days. When I finally booted up this morning I was a far cry from inbox zero, but I managed to leave today with less than ten which is my daily goal. In fact, I reached that number early this morning. I haven't started on my RSS feeds, but I know they will take longer and also be much more interesting.

I spent the better part of the day in Olympia supporting PSE and classified staffing needs. For the most part the news was not good. The house budget was unveiled this morning on the heels of the revenue projections showing a shortfall that had a negative impact on the supplemental budget proposal. Good news for certificated staff is the 1% increase over the 2.8% included in last year's I-732 budget for a 3.9% increase next year. The bad news is that the 1% is not included for classified staff.

We talked with four legislators and one assistant hearing that the money is not there to do what they would all like to do. All point to the group formed when Washington Learns did not include any proposals to fix what all agree is an antiquated state funding system. I didn't leave feeling very optimistic about the future though I believe that they care, but are simply overwhelmed with the process and politically difficult situation currently in place.

I also know that if this budget is adopted our district budget will be increasingly more difficult to balance because we make up the I-732 raise for non-formula staff with the local levy. This increase is eating up the annual levy increase. Combine this with NERC costs increasing more rapidly than revenue increases, our commitment to increase teacher pay, and slowing enrollment growth results in continued reduction in an already meager cash reserve as we have historically done. At some time, however, if the state budget formulas don't change we will need to make the commitment to change practice and actually look at the need for cuts to current levels of program and support. Not a very promising picture, but one we are facing today.

Oh, to cap it all off we didn't make the capital budget cut for our performance center. It went the way of the revenue projections, down and out. We'll keep hammering away until we get more positive results. Once again though the biggest losers seem to be the classified staff. Their roles and remuneration are not priorities at the state level and the work they do is misunderstood and under appreciated by far too many in and outside of Olympia.

It feels good to once again blog. I almost booted up Sunday but decided against it because the temptation to "do" e-mail might have been hard to ignore. It was a good decision. Hope you are enjoying your break.