Superintendent Tom Murphy got a round of applause from the large audience at Tuesday’s school board meeting when he announced a fairly low number of layoffs in his proposed budget.

The Federal Way School District will cut $5 million in staffing costs by cutting 39 teachers, seven clerical staff, eight transportation staff and 10 administrative staff.

Half of these positions were already vacant or expected to be vacant by the end of the year, resulting in fewer actual layoffs.

Each of the high schools will lose one assistant principal.

Some staff will also be reassigned.

Some of the reduction in teachers, 16, is a result from decreasing enrollment, not from the loss of funding on a state level.

Two of these teachers will be from elementary schools; the other 14 will be secondary classroom teachers.

Any staff that will be laid off will be notified no later than May 15, which is the state-required deadline.

Federal Way’s layoffs are significantly less than some other districts. The Bethel School District in Spanaway announced earlier this week that it would be laying off more than 200 teachers.

This year’s budget was different from years past in that the budget takes reductions just one year at a time. In the past, the district has done a “bite the bullet” philosophy and cut for two years worth.

As Sally McLean, the Federal Way district’s chief financial officer, likes to say, “we should rip the band-aid off,” Murphy said. “This year we believe the only responsible plan is to take this one year at a time. The uncertainty of the economy really prevents us from taking this more than one year.”

Budget breakdown

The state reduced the amount of funding the Federal Way School District will receive for the 2009-2010 school year by $10.1 million.

In addition, the district is expected to lose another $2 million in loss of enrollment; the less students the district has, the less funding it receives.

The district is expecting to receive $3 million from its local levy, $800,000 in offset funding, and will use its prior unspent I-728 funds of $1.4 million to end up with a net loss of $6.9 million.

In addition to the $5 million in staff cuts, the district will cut $2.7 million in pension contributions. This move was dictated by the state budget, and McLean voiced concerns about what this cut will do in the future.

“The pension cut will save $2.7 million next year,” McLean said. “The adopted state budget is below the required minimum. This state mandated change raises significant concern. It will create problems in the future. When these pension rates start climbing back up, we will pay for it.”

The district did spend some money bulking up programs to the tune of $303,000.

K-8 programs will continue, 20 new AmeriCorps members will be added, the AVID program will be expanded to four elementary schools and the VISTA program will be expanded. The district will continue to look into a dual language program, the Heritage camp will continue and the International Baccalaureate (IB) program will be expanded.

“The door is not only open, but we are dragging you in,” Murphy said in reference to bringing more diversity to the IB program. “We simply have to make that commitment.”

The district does not plan to let the budgeting fund balance fall below the current 2.5 percent mark, which has been a philosophy adopted by a previous school board.

However, the district is changing its approach to using one-time funding, and plans to use stimulus funding to fill the state reductions.

Also, the district will increase class sizes in the secondary schools and limit the number of electives offered.

Elementary schools will not see an increase in class sizes, in a move that the district hopes will continue to close the achievement gap.

The budget also retains the district’s emphasis on coaching, retains the current number of development days and the all-day kindergarten program, for which the state cut funding.

Budget process

The district will have another update on the budget and a public comment time at the May 12 and May 26 school board meetings. There will then be a public hearing on all funding on June 9, followed by a second public hearing and the board’s adoption of the budget on June 23.

For more information, visit www.fwps.org/budget.

Special session in Olympia threatens FW schools

A special session in Olympia could hold a danger for Federal Way schools.

One of the bills left for dead in the state House could be brought back — and would be devastating to the Federal Way School District, Superintendent Tom Murphy said.

House Bill 1776 would remove levy equalization, which gives poorer school districts extra funding to allow them to compete with higher tax base school districts like Bellevue.

The Federal Way district currently receives $5 million in levy equalization.

The bill, which passed in the Senate but died in the house, would take away that funding — but would allow districts to raise levies by 4 percent, even current levies.

The Federal Way School Board earlier this year passed a resolution against the bill.

“We already have folks in great need,” board member Ed Barney said at the March 10 meeting. “We can’t burden our community.”

“The board believes that these bills, which do not affect levy equalization in a manner that has a positive impact on fair funding of local school districts, are furthermore — and most importantly — a distraction from the real work of our legislators this session: To redefine and fully fund basic education in Washington state,” the board’s letter to the legislators stated.

However, the bill could come back to life in a special session, something the district is already worried about. The district urges residents to speak to their legislators against the bill.

“We cannot stand to allow this to happen again,” Murphy said, pounding his fist on the podium at Tuesday’s school board meeting. “We do not need to sit idly by with this terrible piece of legislation.”