"School district looks to cut more than $400,000 from budget"

"Campus security and extra-curricular activities were among the proposed budget cuts discussed at Wednesday's meeting of the Central Kitsap School Board.The cuts, which total $422,280, are required to help balance the school district's budget, which is required by the state. Enrollment has dropped below projections - the district expected to have 13,036 students this school year, but recent head counts have brought the total in at 12,867. Since the state allocates money to school districts on a per-student basis, the missing 169 students are expected to hit CKSD squarely in the wallet.The school district needs to cut a total of $1.7 million from its $85 million budget. The initial $422,280 in cuts are part of a larger plan that includes teacher attrition and a $500,000 federal heavy impact grant.According to Assistant Superintendent for Business and Operations Gary Powell, however, the overall budget will not drop below $85 million since state and federal money is added to the budget for specific programs. These are just proposals, Powell said. None of it has happened yet.Two of the 15 proposals would cut campus security. If both are approved, off-duty sheriff's coverage would be eliminated from the high schools. Elementary Education Director Allen Hughes, who led the finance group that proposed the security cut, said that principals of the schools didn't feel security would be jeopardized.It would be great to have them (sheriff's deputies) around all the time if they were free, Hughes said. In the six years I have been here, we have always set aside money for security. There are still security guards at the school. Some objections were raised about a proposal to cut $35,000 from extra-curricular academic programs like music, History Day and Knowledge Bowl. Community members wondered why academic programs were singled out for cuts and not sports.Board members responded that sports have been cut in past years, and taking more from them would be unfair.None of us want to make these cuts, Hughes said. But history is something we can't ignore. We have to even them out.Detailed descriptions of the proposed cuts, along with community response forms, are available in the Jenne Wright Administration Building on Silverdale Way and online at www.cksd.wednet.edu/business/budget/default.htm."

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