Marysville School District releases 3 school closure proposals
MARYSVILLE, Wash. - The Marysville School District continues to try to get its finances in order.
It recently released three proposals for school closures in order to make up roughly $2 million in budget shortfalls.
The proposals follow what the state auditor called the "most alarming audit involving public schools finances in over a decade."
The district mentioned Monday night that it could also be looking to borrow millions of dollars to make ends meet in the short term.
Marysville School Board Vice President Kristen Michal says if the district doesn't borrow that money from capital funds, staff and employees won't get paid.
Although the board president says it's much less than what was borrowed last year, some parents are still concerned about the numbers.
"I think it’s really important that when we are trying to present budgetary details about the school district we get our numbers right," said J Hooman, parent and founding member of the Marysville Community Coalition.
Hooman expressed concern regarding the district's proposal to borrow money.
"I’m also frustrated that we continue to have these budget conversations and, unfortunately, a lot of the numbers are just misrepresented, they are inflated numbers, so we are not really getting the true picture of what the current deficit is going to look like," said Hooman.
The informational item was presented in advance of the December board meeting, where more concrete decisions will be made.
"Ideally we’d have fund balance reserves to manage the ebbs and flows of our revenues and expenses, but in the absence of those, an interfund loan is the most efficient and least costly way to fund these cash flow needs," said Brandon Bowman, Executive Director of Finance and Operations.
Board members said without the money, staff wouldn't be paid.
"We have to go out to borrow again to pay our employees, but that number has decreased to 3.5 this year and so it’s an improvement of 1.5 million, so it’s just going to take work getting us out of this situation," said Board President Connor Krebbs.
The executive director of finance and operations says the amount would be scheduled for repayment by December 2025 with interest.
"This will be repaid by December 1st of 2025 with interest, the exact loan amount and interest rate is to be calculated at the time of approval from the board, that’s set for the December 2nd meeting," said Bowman.
Also, since October, the Marysville School District has been holding meetings with the community to get feedback on school closures in order to save around $2 million.
Under the three newly released proposals, Liberty Elementary is on the chopping block in all three, and Legacy High and 10th Street Middle School would also relocate under all three plans.
The closure options are listed below:
Option A:
- Reconfiguration (elementary schools to K - 6 grades)
- Close Marysville Middle School entity (building repurposed)
- Close Liberty Elementary School and relocate Liberty students to a portion of the Marysville Middle School building
- Relocate Legacy High School to the Marysville Getchell High School campus
- Relocate 10th Street Middle School to the Legacy High School building
Option B:
- Close Cascade and Liberty Elementary Schools
- Relocate Legacy High School to the Marysville Getchell High School campus
- Relocate 10th Street Middle School to the Legacy High School building
Option C:
- Close Cascade and Liberty Elementary Schools
- Close Totem Middle School (building would be repurposed)
- Relocate Legacy High School to the Marysville Getchell High School campus
- Relocate 10th Street Middle School to the Legacy High School building
Closure options will next be considered by the school closure committee.
"We haven’t heard anything formal on which option they’ve chosen," said Hooman.
"Within the next month they will present a few of the options they have put together after soliciting advice and information from the community," said Krebbs.
Also, at the Monday night meeting, FOX 13 learned that the revised budget is now due December 1st. It was initially due in mid-October. Bowman says the new deadline was set by the Financial Oversight Committee so they can incorporate enrollment numbers for a more succinct budget.
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