Springfield approves school budget

SPRINGFIELD — In a significant but anticlimactic vote, the Springfield School Board on Monday unanimously approved Superintendent Nancy Golden’s proposed $126 million budget for the 2011-12 school year.

The 5-0 vote — in front of only a few audience members who were in attendance for other reasons — came on the heels of four budget committee meetings in the past month that drew crowds of 100 or more. Most had come to protest a tiny line item in the proposed budget: $100,000 in cuts to high school sports that would have reduced them to club status.

Those cuts were taken care of two weeks ago, though, when the budget committee voted 6-3 to use $109,000 from the district’s contingency fund instead of cutting the sports, which included boys and girls soccer, cross country and swimming at both Springfield and Thurston high schools, as well as wrestling at Springfield High and co-ed cheer at Thurston High.

The $100,000 in cuts were part of about $300,000 in proposed cuts to extracurricular activities. With Monday’s board vote, the rest of the proposed $191,000 in extracurricular activity cuts were solidified, including reducing by 10 percent stipends for coaches, athletic directors and activity directors; eliminating athletic trainers; and eliminating programs at Springfield Middle School, which closed June 15 for good.

Next year’s budget also reflects the permanent closure of three elementary schools — Goshen, Mohawk and Camp Creek — and the elimination of about 70 positions districtwide realized through layoffs, retirements and resignations.

About $3.1 million of the $8.3 million needed to close the district’s budget shortfall is the result of concessions agreed to by employee groups.

As a legal formality, a public hearing on the budget was held before the board’s vote Monday — but no one showed up to make a single comment.

Golden said that didn’t surprise her, given that constituents already knew which way the board was leaning; the budget committee consists of the five board members along with four citizen appointees.

Nor was Golden surprised by the opposition to eliminating some sports. She said Mondaythat she remembers well how a group of Springfield High School wrestlers held hands at the first budget committee meeting on May 26, in a show of solidarity.

“What I love is the advocacy of the kids,” Golden said. “I love it when people stand up for what they believe in.”

Because the district is under a school board mandate to finish every fiscal year with reserve funds matching 4 percent of its general fund operating budget, the $109,000 used to protect high school sports in 2011-12 will have to be found elsewhere by June 30, 2012.

Golden said she is confident that the board will come up with a plan to do that over the course of the next year.

If not, then “shame on us,” she said.