Seattle schools order hiring, spending freeze as shortfall looms
SEATTLE - With a potential $18 million budget shortfall looming for the 2013-14 school year and with state legislative funding relief still uncertain, Seattle Public Schools is implementing a hiring and spending freeze until further notice.
The freeze applies to noncritical positions that do not affect safety or classroom instruction, and is expected to save at least $2.5 million, which can be carried over to assist in building a balanced 2013-14 budget, officials said.
The action comes as the school district develops a general operating fund budget for the next school year, which must be approved by the Seattle School Board in July.
"The district will prioritize activities that contribute to accelerating academic progress for all students, while at the same time being responsive to the significant financial issues that both the school district and the state face," district officials said in a prepared statement.
Over the past five years, Seattle Public Schools has closed combined shortfalls of more than $120 million.
During this time, funds have been prioritized for the classroom and the majority of reductions have come from central office. The percentage spent on central administration has dropped from more than 9 percent to less than 6 percent of the total budget, school officials said.
"While dramatic enrollment growth has increased the overall budget amount, multiple years of state and federal funding reductions have left the district with a shortfall each year, which has resulted in the elimination of jobs, programs and materials," said a school district statement.
“We know these measures impact our employees, and we appreciate everyone’s understanding of the need to take this action,” said Duggan Harman, the district's assistant superintendent of business and finance. “We are hopeful that the legislature follows the recent Supreme Court order and funds the K-12 increases it has previously committed to. If this happens, the path to a balanced budget becomes clearer.”
The freeze applies to noncritical positions that do not affect safety or classroom instruction, and is expected to save at least $2.5 million, which can be carried over to assist in building a balanced 2013-14 budget, officials said.
The action comes as the school district develops a general operating fund budget for the next school year, which must be approved by the Seattle School Board in July.
"The district will prioritize activities that contribute to accelerating academic progress for all students, while at the same time being responsive to the significant financial issues that both the school district and the state face," district officials said in a prepared statement.
Over the past five years, Seattle Public Schools has closed combined shortfalls of more than $120 million.
During this time, funds have been prioritized for the classroom and the majority of reductions have come from central office. The percentage spent on central administration has dropped from more than 9 percent to less than 6 percent of the total budget, school officials said.
"While dramatic enrollment growth has increased the overall budget amount, multiple years of state and federal funding reductions have left the district with a shortfall each year, which has resulted in the elimination of jobs, programs and materials," said a school district statement.
“We know these measures impact our employees, and we appreciate everyone’s understanding of the need to take this action,” said Duggan Harman, the district's assistant superintendent of business and finance. “We are hopeful that the legislature follows the recent Supreme Court order and funds the K-12 increases it has previously committed to. If this happens, the path to a balanced budget becomes clearer.”
Taxes pay for civilization and we need to raise more to protect our future.
hey, just pump the citizens with yet another levy...and then another, and another, etc.
Keep cutting! It's about time!
Well when you are run amok with administrators making millions of dollars a year and you have employees embezzling millions more on top of that, eventually the money will run out. The people of WA would be insane to give the government and especially Seattle School District any more cash.Â
@NW-Economist Cite some real data. The budget problems are orders of magnitude worse than the embezzlement problems of years past. The SCOW has ruled that the state has not provided enough funding for education, it's not a management problem.
@strangel00p @NW-Economisthttp://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2014303247_audit23m.html
You think that's it? That's only the tip of the iceberg. And if you think there's nothing else then I have some sinking pontoons to sell you.Â
@NW-Economist @strangel00p I was well aware of your rhetorical "flourish", but just didn't think it held water.
As for providing a list of specialties within SPS, you're not doing any real analysis. Large school districts are complicated. That's not to say that there's no waste, but until you can show me that the amount of waste is significant compared to the funding needs, the discussion's over.
@strangel00pWow you are dense, the pontoon thing was to make a turn of phrase joke in relation to corruption.Â
Take a look at all of these and tell me if we need them. Then start looking over some of the higher steps for management and administrators and tell me what you think.Â
http://www.seattleschools.org/modules/cms/pages.phtml?pageid=205330
@NW-Economist @strangel00p Though the pontoon issue is egregious, it's not related to the failure of funding for education at the state level (again, the SCOW has ruled); if you have evidence of more financial mis-deeds at Seattle Public Schools, please spill.
It's easier to cast stones than to fix problems, isn't it.
I hope this doesn't affect the sweetheart real estate deals for certain community groups and "contracting" opportunities for, um, "disadvantaged" service providers. Though that graft I mean those services are very well entrenched in Seattle Schools at the top level so there's probably no need to worry. Whew.
Yes!