Hi Genesee Hill families,
I’m sure you’re all looking forward to Daylight Savings Time as much as we are. Spring is upon us. We hope you had time to enjoy some student celebrations this past month by attending Unity Night and Art Walk.
Spring also brings the start of next year’s PTA budgeting process. The creation of the PTA’s budget doesn’t occur in isolation. We are reliant on what the school’s administration projects and needs for the upcoming year. As you are aware, the Seattle Public Schools is faced with a $131 million budget deficit, fueled by declining enrollment, rising labor costs, and increasing student needs in the wake of the pandemic. The District’s response to the deficit will have significant impact on Genesee Hill, as well as every school within the District.
At Wednesday’s General Membership Meeting, we’re going to hear from Principal Dunn about the budget impact for 2023-24 on Genesee Hill Elementary. Additionally, we’ll provide information to membership about how schools are funded and the role of PTAs in addressing systemic school district deficits. In preparation for this important work, please see the Citizen’s Guide to Washington State K-12 Finance. Another important resource we would like you to review is the 2019 Seattle Counsel PTA resolution.
We understand that anytime there are budget cuts that impact educational programs and potentially people within the school, it triggers a broad range of reactions and attempts at problem solving. Ideally, SPS would give key stakeholders sufficient time to review resources and design thoughtful solutions. However, SPS provided budget allocations to Genesee Hill on March 6th with a requirement for all PTAs to confirm any PTA grants for staffing positions by the Principal's budget arena meeting, March 22nd. We acknowledge this is not enough time and we strongly share your frustrations with this forced system. In order to meet this deadline, we will be splitting the budget into two phases, funds for staff positions in phase one and all other budget items for phase two. We invite you, urge you, to attend our next general membership meeting on Wednesday March 15th at 6pm in the school library to discuss what the Genesee Hill Elementary Building Leadership team is asking of our PTA community for phase one, staffing grants. We will hold an additional community meeting March 20th to continue discussions before a Phase 1 vote on the staffing budget March 21st. We will also be discussing steps for how to advocate for a better budgeting and funding system from SPS. View a budgeting timeline.
Lastly, we want to say thank you to the families who went to Olympia on February 20th for Advocacy Day. The 34th District legislators were appreciative of the turnout and the voice of support for education. It’s going to be vitally important for the Genesee Hill community to build its advocacy voices in Olympia, but also in Seattle School Board meeting to ensure that education in the State and the District is funded fully, so PTA’s across the state are not filling gaps in services. If you have not signed up for WSPTA action alerts yet, you can sign up here.
We look forward to coming together this Wednesday. We can only be as strong as we are engaged.
Sincerely,
Michael and Lia, PTA Co-Presidents
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