Vancouver school board OKs budget after weeks of contention

o 2014-15 school year: 88.8 full-time positions

o 2015-2016 school year: 118.1 full-time positions

o Cost of additions to counseling staff: $2.5 million

o State funds 46.5 full-time positions

o District will pay for 71.6 full-time positions

Counseling positions added 2015-2016

o July 2: Proposed budget added 6.2 elementary counselors plus three full-time counseling support Family-Community Resource Center positions.

o Aug. 19: Superintendent Steve Webb proposes adding 6.6 more full-time elementary counselors, ensuring that every elementary school will have at least one full-time counselor.

o Aug. 25: Directors Dale Rice and Mark Stoker propose adding six more full-time counselors to middle and high schools.

o Aug. 27: Webb proposes adding 7.5 more full-time counseling support positions to middle and high schools.

o Total counselors added: 29.3.

It’s unusual for a school board to be greeted by a round of applause for passing a motion, but that’s what happened when the Vancouver Public Schools board approved the 2015-2016 budget Thursday morning, paving the way for classes to begin on time Wednesday.

After weeks of contention, the board finally reached consensus and approved a $271 million budget.

At three previous meetings, the four-member school board was unable to muster three “yes” votes. The main sticking point has been the amount of money devoted to school counselors.

The district’s contract with Vancouver Education Association specifies a student-to-counseling-staff ratio of 450:1. With the additional counseling staff, the district’s ratio will be about 200:1. The state’s average ratio is 517:1, according to the American School Counselors Association.

At multiple meetings, board directors Kathy Gillespie and Edri Geiger requested additional counselors in all schools by reducing expenditures on other items that did not directly affect students.

Directors Mark Stoker and Dale Rice agreed that adding counseling positions was a good idea, but they emphasized that additional counseling positions must be within the proposed budget.

The issue was resolved when Superintendent Steve Webb laid out a proposal to add more counseling staff. In total, Vancouver will add the equivalent of 29.3 full-time counseling positions at an annual cost of $2.5 million. All of the positions were added without increasing the total budget.

After the meeting, Gillespie said, “We’ve never had this level of (counselor) support. It’s going to be transformational. If a budget process is not uncomfortable, you are not asking the right questions.”

The counseling staff will be paid for by a variety of means. Money to pay for the elementary school positions includes the general fund, levy equalization adjustment and staffing contingency funds.

The counseling staff at middle and high schools will be paid for by trimming other spending, including a 3 percent reduction in central administration and operation support services materials, supplies and operating costs. This includes travel, communications, school board and superintendent’s office budgets.

“This is the best recommendation the team can bring forward. Period,” Webb said.

Both Geiger and Gillespie expressed satisfaction with the results.

“I don’t have any other comments on the budget,” Gillespie said. “We have made astronomical improvement in the budget. We should be really proud of our work. What we’ve done is ensure the community that we’ve found every dollar and directed it to student need. There’s no question that we have done our duty.”

But Rice countered: “Mark and I have never said it’s not needed. My beef is that it’s been done at the last minute. This process should have been done in May and June. This is not a professional way to budget. It’s the timing I object to, not the process.”

He added that he didn’t appreciate the issue “being jammed down our throats at the last minute.”

Geiger said that she had brought up the need for more counselors in previous meetings, and that eight board work sessions were canceled “where we could have talked about it. What is new is for the board to sit down and say what we need.”

Gillespie added: “The reason these issues didn’t come up is because we didn’t have a majority of the board willing to talk about issues and student need. Nothing was shoved down anyone’s throat. That is offensive and inaccurate. We looked at best practices. People should feel proud of what we’ve done.”

Webb jumped in at that point: “In the interest of ending on a positive note, let’s try to move forward.”

Stoker called for the budget vote. All four directors approved it. The audience applauded.

Tom Hagley, district spokesman, described the applause after the budget approval as “profound relief. The school year doesn’t have to be delayed.”

Board vacancy

The moment hung in the air very briefly until the board immediately took up another contentious task: filling a vacant board seat.

After discussion, the board members are still divided regarding the process for moving ahead in appointing a fifth board member to replace Nada Wheelock, who resigned last month due to a conflict of interest after taking a new job with the school district’s foundation.

Gillespie and Geiger asked that the public be allowed to question the candidates. Geiger said she would like the board to appoint a person of color “to bring new perspective.”

Stoker and Rice spoke about expediency. Neither agreed that the appointment process required changing.

Rice made a motion to appoint Michelle Giovannozzi, who is running unopposed in the Nov. 3 election. Rice and Stoker approved the motion. Gillespie and Geiger voted no.

If the board had moved forward, the appointed board member would serve about a 60-day term before the election.

At this point, the board is not taking action to appoint a fifth board member. If the board does not appoint a fifth board member by Oct. 15, Educational Service District 112 can appoint a board member of its choice.