Coupeville Sports

Love the sound of budget numbers being crunched during the drowsy summer months?

I personally don’t, but you do you, and more power to you.

But seriously, the next two meetings of the Coupeville School Board are very important.

At a time when Superintendent Steve King has a mandate to cut up to 1.45 million, and sole discretion as to how to make those cuts, people are justifiably on edge.

The school board issued that mandate after the district’s general fund crashed well below where the board has stipulated it wants it to be.

King has issued three updates on budget cuts — they’re not proposals, they’re already approved — though has altered things slightly.

The most public reversal was changing plans to remove Willie Smith as Athletic Director and hand his duties to Vice Principal Leonard Edlund.

A timeline of those cuts — with Smith’s job change now scrubbed from the original May 1 cut list, giving it the appearance of never having been discussed — can be found here:

https://www.coupeville.k12.wa.us/Page/300

Despite sustained public outcry, the current list of cuts still includes the positions of Dean of Students (19-year vet Tom Black) and Athletic Trainer (Wolf alumni and recent bride Jessica Caselden), as well as reductions in paraeducators.

The proposed 2023-2024 budget was posted on the district website last week, and can be found here:

Click to access DRAFT_2023-2024_F195_Summary_Pages_Fund_Summary_Budget_Summary_GF1-GF15_ASB1_DS1-DS2_CP1-CP3_TVF1.pdf

The school board has two meetings scheduled in the next two weeks, and the budget will be the primary topic of discussion.

Those meetings, which go down at 5:30 PM in the Anderson Board Room (Annex Room #305 at the high school) will not be the same, however.

The July 20 meeting is a board workshop, with the budget, and only the budget, on the agenda.

This is a public meeting, not executive session, and is open to all who wish to attend in person.

It will not be streamed online, however, as district officials choose not to stream workshops.

There is also no public comment taken at that meeting.

The July 27 meeting is the normal monthly meeting, with all the bells and whistles — streaming, live mics for board members, public comment time, and additional items on the agenda.

Willie Smith might even try and slip a middle school coaching hire past me during the dog days, putting it on the consent agenda just to see if I’m awake.

Never know. Have to be ever vigilant.

In more serious matters, the July 27 meeting is the primary budget hearing, and would be the first time the board could take a public vote on the 2023-2024 budget.