School board hears case for no more cuts

Aaron Derr told the school board Monday that cuts to personnel were going drastically in the wrong direction to satisfy budget tightening needs in response to lowering enrollment.

Derr, a teacher at Lake Roosevelt, said he'd used data from the state website for the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the lead K-12 education agency in the state, or OSPI.

The Grand Coulee Dam School District has lost 120 students in the last three years, he said, and OSPI recommends about the number of teachers they currently have, but fewer administrators, including only about a half-time superintendent and 1.2 principals.

Derr said by his count the district had already reduced its teaching staff by eight teachers through attrition and resignations and asked for a pause on all "wholesale cuts."

He said the fall in enrollment from about 731 in 2015 to 590 currently has happened at the same time the district is spending 20% more on administrative positions.

Superintendent Rod Broadnax said the advice from the Educational Service District, which gets it from OSPI is actually to cut about four more teachers and 3.8 administrators, which he said would not work and he won't do.

"We need to do something drastic, and not just cutting teachers," Derr said. "Cutting teachers is drastic in the wrong drastic direction. If anything, it's more harmful. Drastic because you have those students that won't be getting the small group attention, that won't be getting the one-on-one attention, that won't be getting the extra differentiation that they need. That means parents are going to pull kids out, which means our enrollment goes down even further."