In the Superintendent’s Report to the Board, Dr. Steve Webb addressed the state’s budget adoption and ramifications for Vancouver Public Schools (VPS).  “As you know, legislators adopted a final supplemental budget for 2012-13 in early April.  As reported previously, for the first time in a decade, elected leaders did not hand VPS a budget shortfall to manage.  After a decade of cuts exceeding $40 million, today’s budget conversation is a refreshing change.  We will not be talking about which valued programs and services we might need to reduce.  Instead, we’ll focus on how to continue advancing the district’s Design II strategic vision through smart investments,” Webb said. 

“The Supreme Court’s ruling on McCleary v. State was a game changer.  VPS and the Vancouver Education Association (VEA) led the way among districts in Southwest Washington four years ago when we joined the Network for Excellence in Washington Schools (NEWS).  On behalf of our board of directors, I want to thank VEA leaders for their financial support and collaboration with VPS in the NEWS lawsuit,” Webb added. 

“Given an improving economy and the Supreme Court’s commitment to oversee legislative accountability to the McCleary v. State ruling and HB 2261- full funding for K-12 education, our budget outlook is indeed brighter.

“Recently, OSPI released a pivot table detailing the consensus budget.  In a moment, I’ll ask Steve Olsen (chief fiscal officer) to cross walk the budgets released to date, and to highlight the specifics of the consensus budget and the slight overall improvement to our 2012-13 budget.  I’ll also ask Steve to highlight some recommended strategic investments for next year; we discussed them recently at our spring retreat.  If approved, these investments would be resourced from our local levy. 

“These investments can be grouped into two categories—first, the restoration of the certificated staff professional development stipend, which was suspended to help address budget reductions this past year; second, several modest investments in our Design II strategic initiatives, including:

• Support for our newest program of choice—Vancouver iTech Preparatory;
  
  
• Support for 21st century learning environments, such as wireless networks in all schools and a district-wide staff laptop purchase that replaces fixed desktop units with flexible digital tools to untether our teaching staff;
  
  
• Support for family and community engagement, such as the possibility of adding Family-Community Resource Center sites based on economic need; and
  
  
• Support for instructional quality that assists our site-based administrators in their role as instructional leaders. 

“At the conclusion of Steve Olsen’s presentation, our team will be prepared to respond to questions about the proposed strategic investments. After the budget presentation, I’ll ask that you provide any additional direction that might inform budget development.  Based upon your feedback, I will build the 2012-2013 budget, which will be presented for adoption on August 14 after a public hearing,” Webb said.