MARYSVILLE – Due to continued declining enrollment, the Marysville School District plans to have 38 fewer classified staff in four years.
Yet the pay for teachers will increase from almost $93.2 million to almost $94.45 million.
That was just one of a number of interesting budget facts rolled out at Monday’s school board meeting. Enrollment is estimated to be 10,344 this year, but is set to drop for various reasons four years from now by 280 students. Therefore the number of certificated staff will drop from 739 to 701. But because of teacher raises, money spent will go up.
Finance director Mike Sullivan also said the district’s rainy day fund will drop from $18.5 million to $13 million this year, but the budget then shows it will stabilize the next three years.
“A lot of districts are that way,” Sullivan said, because of changes in state funding due to the McCleary decision. He added some districts are contemplating supplemental levies, along with their regular ones.
Thanks to state legislature changes, MSD will be allowed to attempt to pass a levy for $2.50 per $1,000 valuation, up from $1.50 per $1,000 set the previous year. That’s $750 a year in taxes for schools on a $300,000 home.
The legislative change was made to provide equity for districts like Marysville’s where the valuation of homes is not as high as in other districts. Next year, local taxes will provide $24.43 million in funding, while the state will kick in $140 million.
In the last three years, the MSD general fund budget has grown from $149 million to $167 million to $180 million. Local taxes contributed $28 million, $19 million then $17 million. State taxes provided $110 million, $134 million then $140 million. Federal government contributes less than $10 million a year.
Total revenues the past three years went from $153 million to $172 million to $177 million. Cost of instruction has gone from $7.3 million to $10.7 million to $11 million.
The MSD budget this year has five parts:
•General Fund, more than $180.82 million
•Capital Projects Fund, almost $10.337 million
•Debt Service Fund, $9.44 million
•Associated Student Body Fund, over $3.4 million
•Transportation Vehicle Fund, more than $1.29 million
Superintendent Jason Thompson also said the city stepped up to pay for the Student Resource Officers when a grant ran out.
In other news:
•Ron Chapin, video production teacher at Marysville Getchell High School, showed a video made by his class. It was on MG student Xander Johnson, who is on the swim and cross country teams despite having a vision disability. When the school lost its broadcast channel, this documentary class took its place. Chapin, an M-P grad, said he wants to open up the activity to the community. Go to MGHSproductions.com.
•Former district employee Emily Wicks said the district should change its policies to allow public-private partnerships, like in Everett and Renton. That wouldn’t replace the need for a school construction bond, but it could help in the interim, she said. She added there are a lot of Marysville alumni who would like to partner with the district if they could.
•Sodexo, the district’s food service provider, gave $7,255.63 to the Marysville Food Bank.
