the Olympia School District and the eternal budget crisis

This isn't new news, but it's news again. After a new report, conflicting pressures from an advisory board mean that the district is going to have to come up with its own plan to trim excess from the budget.

An Olympia School District administration budget proposal slated to be unveiled later this month could be different from the advisory group proposal and likely will cut deeper, district officials said Monday. Superintendent Bill Lahmann said he expects to recommend phasing in the $1.7 million in cuts during the next two years rather than cutting the entire amount this fall.

Budget advisory group members and Olympia school board members both said they had concerns about adding higher fees for sports. Under the proposal — which would require school board approval before it was implemented — pay-to-play fees would increase from $30 to $40 per sport for middle school students and from $75 to $90 per sport for high school students.

You can bet that as the OEA interviews school board candidates for the upcoming election, we're going to ask about those cuts.