Snohomish County NewsSpending the day with mom
Doug Ramsay photo
Carter Mose, 2, and his mother Heather of Snohomish listen to Tim Noah sing at the third annual Mother’s Day Peace Gathering on May 9 at Snohomish’s Ferguson Park. Almost 100 people attended this year’s event, which featured local musicians, children’s art activities and food.
Volunteers plant flowers downtown
Boeing employees Kristi Hall (left) and Michelle Anderson took time out from the office May 8 to help plant flowers along Hewitt Avenue in downtown Everett. Twenty-three volunteers along with 35 students from Everett High School’s horticulture class spent the morning planting 10,000 flowers in the 483 sidewalk planters on Colby and Hewitt avenues. The plants were grown at Everett parks and recreation’s greenhouse at Legion Park with the horticulture students assisting in the project. Volunteers will also be needed June 6 to plant flowers along Mukilteo Boulevard through Forest Park.
School Board OKs teacher layoffs;
JROTC program needs private money
By MICHAEL WHITNEY
SNOHOMISH — The Snohomish School District is set to cut its student military training program despite outcry from parents and students alike.
More than 100 people came out en masse last week to rally support for the Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC) program, but budget woes at the Snohomish School District forced it to be sliced as part of a larger $3.2 million cut of programs and teaching positions.
Other cuts as part of the package approved unanimously by the school board last week include up to 20 teachers and up to 12 custodians of the 46 employed. Para-educators also will have their hours cut under the superintendent’s recommendations.
Some workers, such as an audio/video technician at Snohomish High School, said they are already receiving notification that they will be let go.
Snohomish teachers union president Justin Fox-Bailey said he’s still not concerned as teachers lost now will likely be picked up in September, but the loss of up to 20 positions will impact the remainder of the staff. The district plans to slot teachers in to open classes. Para-educators may not be so lucky.
Machias Elementary para-educator Judy York warned that student performance will decrease without support staff such as herself and cause parents to leave the district.
“Your building, your windows, your walls will come tumbling down,” York said.
The number of students enrolled directly impacts the amount of state money that gets funneled to the district. Overall more of that money has been cut at the state level as it manages its own deficit. State legislators have knocked out more than $3 billion from K-12 education in the budget. Hopes that Gov. Chris Gregoire would call back legislators into an emergency session to rethink the budget ended last week when she decided against it.
Within that cut, more than $750 million was slashed from a fund that alleviates classroom overcrowding, decimating the Snohomish School District’s share from $4 million to $280,000.
This financial landscape has meant the district has had to find as many places to cut as possible. While new curriculum purchases were culled, Superintendent Bill Mester focused his cuts away from the classrooms as much as possible.
Extracurriculars, co-curriculars and non-teaching staff were what was left to cut.
“We have cut everything that we can without touching the kids as much as possible,” board member Josh Seek said.
The JROTC program at Snohomish, the oldest in the state, was one of the casualties among extracurriculars, but the board did not officially cancel the program full stop. It will be sending a letter of intent to the Marine Corps to end the JROTC program, but if private money comes between now and September, the program may be saved.
School district fundraiser Doug Roulstone pledged that he will find the $169,000 necessary for Snohomish to pay the two military officers who head the program to raucous applause.
“You know I’ve done it before, and I’ll do it again,” Roulstone said.
Roulstone’s track record has been stellar as he has raised $4 million over the past five years for the district.
Alternate options to save the program are slim, though.
The financial cost of JROTC does not make sense for today’s budget crunch, Mester said. Teachers in the district handle 150 students, while JROTC instructors handle 80. If the community can raise the funds for the program, though, it will be saved.
The union representative for non-teaching staff, Andy Wiesenfeld of the Public School Educators of Snohomish, again wanted the board to dip into its $4 million reserve fund to save jobs.
Mester and the board have long said that that is too risky.
“We’re not going to go into our reserves, it’s not responsible,” board member David Johnston said.
Wiesenfeld previously had called the cuts an unfair share on non-teaching staff.
“One out of seven members are going to be in essence losing their jobs,” Wiesenfeld said last week.
Some district employees called for their hours to be cut so they can save the jobs of their fellow union members, but any agreement would need to go through union negotiations, Mester said.
The board also is waiting for the coaching staff to bring a plan to raise participation fees. The first sports saved may be seventh-grade football and baseball, Mester said.