PORT ANGELES — Families with students in the Port Angeles School District should prepare for larger class sizes, fewer educational coaches and no sixth-grade band program this fall.

That’s what Superintendent Marty Brewer told the audience at a public forum Tuesday night at Jefferson Elementary School, where he and Director of Finance and Operations Kira Acker presented measures the district must take to close the $5,000,243 gap in its budget next year.

“Since Jan. 1, I have been working on this plan with administrators, union leaders to create a plan that will work out for our school district,” Brewer said.

“This is the budget I will bring to the board on Thursday.”

The plan for 2023-2024 notes revenue of $55,600,867, expenses of $59,832,243, salary increases of more than $768,867 and total expense of $60,601,110 with expenses exceeding revenue by $5,000,243.

The board will vote on the 2023-2024 school year budget at its regular meeting at 6 p.m. today at the district’s administration offices at Lincoln Center, 905 W. Ninth St.

The goal in trimming the budget, Brewer said, was to make the cuts that impacted students the least.

Fewer than 30 people, most of them board members and district staff, attended Tuesday’s public forum.

Brewer outlined the three primary strategies for cutting 10 percent from the district’s $55,600,867 budget and bridging the shortfall: increasing the size of classes across all schools, not filling some positions left open by retirement and eliminating some programs.

The average class size will be closer to the numbers agreed upon last year during bargaining with the teachers’ union (that one-year contract expires next year and will be have to be negotiated).

For example, Port Angeles High School classes could rise from the current average of 20 students to the bargained number of 27 in each class.

Among the positions that won’t be filled next year are sixth-grade band instructor, currently held by John Kilzer, who is retiring. The tentative plan is to bring back the position when the renovated Stevens Middle School opens in 2028.

“I know how important music is in this community, and that reduction comes very hard for me,” Brewer said.

The district still would have eight full-time music teachers in the elementary school system next year, and although he would make no promises, Brewer said he would be talking to high school music instructor Jaren Hansen about possible “creative solutions.”

The district also won’t fill an assistant high school principal position when it becomes vacant, is eliminating elementary schools deans and education coaches and will reduce the number of school nurses from four to three.

Contracted services also will be hit hard by budget reductions. Eliminating the NatureBridge program, for example, will save about $45,000. Transitional kindergarten will not return either, Brewer said.

Continuing decline in enrollment, inadequate support for special education and a state funding model for basic education that disadvantages Port Angeles are behind the shortfall, Acker said.

“After COVID — even now we still haven’t gotten all of our kids back — the landscape has changed,” Acker said. “On average, about 174 students haven’t returned since COVID, and since we’re paid on a per-student apportionment, every student that doesn’t show back up, it’s about $12,000 a year.”

That represented about $2 million in lost revenue, Acker said.

Although the state Legislature before its session ended Sunday increased the amount districts receive per student for special education funding by raising the cap from 13.5 to 15 percent, this still doesn’t meet Port Angeles’ needs because about 18 percent of its students have been identified as qualifying for this aid.

So, the district must use general levy funds to pay the difference — this year it’s 124 special education students.

Even with the increased funding for special education from the state, it’s still a $1.5 million hit to the district.

The district also is handicapped in its ability to collect revenue by regionalization factors that favor neighboring districts, the loss of a staff mix formula that reflected the experience and education level of teachers and levy equalization that negatively impacts the way it can meet its obligations to students, Brewer said.

Brewer said other districts around the state also were struggling to meet their budgets with the current funding model.

“These don’t work well at all for us,” Brewer said. “We’re in trouble and we’re not alone.”

Brewer said there were no plans at present to create new elementary school boundaries, and that reconfiguring elementary schools like what is occurring in Sequim was not on his “to-do list.”

“We are going to have to reassess our boundaries, but that’s not going to happen this year,” Brewer said. “There’s a lot of excitement around that (Sequim plan). I’m going to monitor that and see how it goes.”

Brewer said year-round school is something the district would need to examine at some point, but that the aging condition of its schools and the lack of air conditioning in most of them would need to be addressed before any decision could be made.

A video recording of the April 25 forum at Jefferson Elementary School can be found here: tinyurl.com/yc65pu79.

The PowerPoint presented at the forum with budget information can be found here: tinyurl.com/2p88e98d.

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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached at paula.hunt@soundpublishing.com.