School District Releases Annual Budget Details for 2011-12

Celebrating a budget plan that "bridged the chasm of the economy," Mercer Island School District officials laid out its budget for the next school year at Wednesday's school board meeting at the MISD administration building. 

MISD Executive Director Dean Mack detailed a budget that spends $44.8 million for the next school year on teachers, administration, special needs, food service, transportation and special programs like summer school and full-day Kindergarten.

The state is still the MISD's largest source of revenue, with $23.6 million — 53.3 percent of the budget — supported by Olympia. But that ratio of support has declined significantly in the Great Recession, essentially frozen in place while federal stimulus money has run out. Local voters and residents have stepped in to make the difference so far, approving new levies and fund raised by the .

"We were able to do that which the state was not able to do," Mack said.

, the district actually hired more over the past year. An additional 11.5 certificated employees — mainly teachers — were part of a five percent increase of the General Fund budget. The MISD also in June with over 400 district employees represented by the Mercer Island Education Association. The union claimed they held teacher pay at current levels in the agreement, which awards a certificated first-year teacher with a bachelor's degree $40,454 all the way up to the most senior educators (with at least 16 years MISD employment and an MA with 90 credits or a Ph.D.) at $78,585.

The school district also plans to purchase four 22-seat special education buses and spend $2.16 million on a new music room facility at from a separate, Capital Improvement Fund.

The teachers are deemed necessary, said Mack, to maintain low classroom sizes in the face of rising student enrollment, which is estimated at around 4,150. Superintendent Gary Plano also advocated for retaining a 5 percent ending balance for the fund, given economic uncertainty.

"It is hard to build this size of a budget. We need to be able to save some resources," he said. "This year (our ending balance will) be down to 7.9 percent. There was some risk to us this year. We couldn't have signed a multi-year agreement without that ending balance."