Superintendent's Message

April 2009

Dear Shoreline Schools Community,

In response to the Washington State Legislature’s unprecedented proposed reduction in K-12 funding for 2009-11, the Shoreline School District is anticipating the need to significantly reduce expenditures for next year.

Due to the reductions that have already been made over the past three years and the restoration of an ending fund balance necessary to provide fiscal stability and secure a strong bond rating, Shoreline is in a better position than many surrounding districts. However, cuts are inevitable for the coming school year and will be difficult. 

We know that there will be a significant decrease in voter-approved I-728 funding, which currently provides $4 million for 40 certificated staff to reduce class size, staff professional development and extended learning opportunities for students in Shoreline. We have been told to assume that we will get approximately 25 percent of this funding or approximately $1 million, a loss of $3 million.

There is also a good chance that the state will alter staffing ratios, increasing class size and reducing funding for approximately 13 certificated teaching staff or about $1 million. Finally, it appears that there will be a reduction of at least one of the two non-student staff workdays funded by the state.

There is no doubt that these are challenging times in education. Veteran educators say they have never seen anything like this in their K-12 careers.

What disappoints us most about these challenges is that they will delay us from fully pursuing the visionary instructional agenda we know will help us achieve our goals of ensuring all students reach high standards, closing our achievement gap and preparing all students for college and/or careers beyond high school.

This year, Shoreline began moving toward the vision of a professional learning community at both the district and school levels. This work depends on a strong partnership with our certificated teaching staff, as well as an integrated assessment and data reporting system that will inform instruction and improve student learning. The realization of the full potential of this monitoring system will require time and resources beyond a level we can now afford.

Shoreline has a strong history of and reputation for educational excellence, which we believe is a testament to the quality of our teachers and staff, as well as our supportive community. We have every confidence that we will get through these financially challenging times together. We have done so before and we can do it again.

When Shoreline receives its final notification of next year’s allocation, we will have limited time to construct a balanced budget. When adjusting our current budget, we would like to incorporate your input and opinions on budget priorities. To this end, we are asking all of the students, parents and staff in our educational community to help us prioritize our educational activities in order to minimize the impacts of our future budget reductions.

Please take a few minutes and share your opinions about overall budget priorities for the Shoreline School District. The survey can be found here:

Shoreline 2009-10 Budget Priorities Survey

Sincerely, Sue Walker