Committee reviews $270,000 renewal for out-of-state residential placement, discusses apportionment advance

The Vancouver School District Committee of the Whole reviewed a recommendation to renew a residential placement contract with Sunrise Residential Treatment Center (Utah) and discussed a recurring request for an apportionment advance to manage state funding timing.

Presenter said Sunrise is one of the district’s specialized intensive therapeutic programs used for students with significant special-education needs and that costs for those placements have risen by more than 10 percent; the presenter gave an estimated annual cost of $270,000 for the placement. The presenter described the renewal as a recommendation brought forward for the committee’s review, not a final board action.

The presenter also described the district’s request for an advance on its apportionment — the state’s scheduled payments of basic education and other entitlements — saying the legislature’s payment structure delays a substantial share of funding to late in the year while district costs are front-loaded. The presenter said this would be the third year the district has tapped the apportionment-advance mechanism and that the district has drawn down fund balance in recent years to manage the cash-flow gap.

No formal motions or roll-call votes on either item were recorded in the transcript of the Committee of the Whole meeting.