Schools keep fingers crossed on budget

Byline

All eyes in the Sisters School District are turned toward Salem, awaiting the final state budget appropriation for education.

Schools superintendent Steve Swisher expects the final numbers to come in at $4.86 or $4.87 billion - just enough to support the budget the district drafted e"arlier this summer.

"As long as we end up in the high $4.8s we'll be okay," Swisher said. "I'm reasonably confident, still that we'll be able to move around the appropriations... and basically be able to stay with our plan for the year.

If the final budget comes in lower than hoped for, Sisters schools may have to cut staff or programs, Swisher noted.

The Oregon House of Representatives passed a $4.81 billion version of the school funding passage, but Swisher is confident that the Senate will come up with a larger figure.

Even if the budget dollars clear the $4.86 billion bar, the Sisters School District has its work cut out for it. Much of the funding from the state will be "targeted," which means it can't be spent at the school board's discretion.

Some of the appropriation will be dedicated to class size reduction (which the district budgeted new staff to accomplish) and toward facility maintenance and equipment upgrades.

That means the district will have to shift money around "from pot to pot" Swisher said, in order to cover all its programs.

The problem is that the shape of the final appropriation won't be known until two to three weeks after the Legislature approves a school funding budget - and school is fast approaching.

According to Swisher, it is quite possible that school will start before the district really knows how much money is in the kitty.

"All we have to do is start school with our best guess, but it creates tremendous uncertainty in staff morale (and) parent morale," Swisher said. "It's just not conducive to a good program."

Perhaps the most galling aspect of the drawn-out and highly politicized debate over education funding is that the likely final number of $4.86 billion was proposed as a compromise figure between Democrats and Republicans back in February.

"The political process is extremely frustrating to people at the local level," Swisher noted.

But education politics is likely to continue to be a long and contentious wrangle. Swisher noted that education has assumed enormous importance to the new information and technology-based Oregon economy.

Whatever issues are central to the economy become a political battleground, Swisher believes.

"Because education is so critically vital to the economy, it is held hostage in the political process," Swisher said.

For local districts, that means a long and anxious wait.