Board hears budget update on unfunded pay-step 'bump' and discusses several new state policy requirements

District finance staff provided a budget update and described how the state'authorized but unfunded "bump" to certified salary schedules will be implemented for eligible employees on the September 19 payroll while the state funding picture remains uncertain.

Heidi, a finance staff member, said the recent mini'bill authorized recognizing an additional year of service on certified salary schedules (a step "bump") but did not include funding for it. "They authorized a bump. Now what authorized means is we can go ahead and do that, but they didn't provide any money for that," Heidi said. She told the board the district will implement the step increases on the Sept. 19 payroll and will process any retroactive adjustments later if the legislature or state department provides allotments.

Heidi explained some teachers and staff are funded through state position allotments that are calculated by the Department of Public Instruction formulas and that those allotments will cover a major portion of step costs; other increases could temporarily be covered from local funds until state allotments are adjusted. When asked for a local cost estimate, Heidi said she did not have an exact figure on hand but later estimated the out'of'pocket amount due to this action would be on the order of tens of thousands of dollars, not hundreds of thousands; she later said the amount would likely be in the neighborhood of $50,000.

Heidi said not all employees move up a step in a given year because pay tables use tiers and some highly experienced employees have no additional step that year. Hourly employees and certain categories follow local pay schedules, which the district set last year.

The board asked about the operational risk of implementing the bump before a full state budget; Heidi said the district historically received allotments based on formulas and that if later adjustments are required any retroactive funding will be handled then. She said the district's staffing alignment and current fund balance position should allow the bump to be covered in the short term.

In the policies portion of the meeting, Anna Gillespie and other staff reviewed multiple state'required policy updates. The board discussed a newly required policy on parental inspection and objection to instructional materials (policy 3320 and related codes) that now requires a searchable catalog of all library and classroom materials and that parents may request in writing that a student be prohibited from borrowing specific titles. Staff said classroom'level cataloging will be a heavy administrative lift and discussed ideas such as volunteer barcode scanning to assist.

Board members also discussed a statutory requirement to post certain central'office compensation and position information online by a state deadline and clarified the law requires position titles and total compensation "from all funding sources" as written in the statute; staff said they interpreted that to mean compensation funded by the district and would clarify language if needed.

The meeting also covered changes requiring background checks for contractors and clarifications about who pays for them; staff said background checks have been standard for many contractors but the statute and policy clarified requirements and payment obligations in some cases.

On wireless devices, staff noted the new statutory requirement to prohibit in'class cell phone use during instructional time. District high schools had already implemented a phone'free policy last year and staff reported no major issues in implementation.

Given the statutory timing for several policy changes, staff asked the board to accelerate the wireless device policy to second read so it can be adopted at the upcoming consent meeting. Board members signaled consensus to place that policy on the consent agenda next week.