April 27 - May 3, 2023
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East Blaine manufactured home parks, page 3
Plover undergoes extensive repair, page 10
Filing week nears, page 13
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State approves Birch Bay library express scope change By Ian Haupt
School staff cuts prompt student walkout B y P a t G r u bb For Blaine school administrators, Monday, April 24 ended pretty much the way it started with a student walkout. A large crowd of high school students, many dressed in red to support their teachers, walked out of school before classes began and marched to the school district’s administrative offices to protest planned cuts to educators and other district staff. They walked out again at the regular monthly school board meeting held later that night after the board voted 4-0 (with one abstention) to approve the administration’s plan (Resolution 2223-08 Reduced Education Program Plan for 2023-24). The administration had proposed cuts to the educational program citing smaller than projected student enrollment for the 2023-24 school year as well as reduced income from state and federal funding sources. State law requires school districts planning to terminate certificated employees to
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give notice by May 15. In July 2022, the district adopted a budget with a four-year forecast that would put it $14 million in the red by 2026. The forecast for the 2022-23 school year alone projected a deficit of nearly $5 million with expenditures set at $45.3 million and revenue expected to be $40.5 million. In that forecast, the district also expected a $6 million deficit in the 2023-24 school year, if no program adjustments were made. Executive director of finance and operations Amber Porter told The Northern Light in an email that the district will reduce the 2023-24 deficit $1.2 million with this reduced education plan. “Also, if we find any more savings in our current fiscal year, we will preserve even more programs – and that will create a larger deficit,” Porter wrote. “The goal will be to use all our resources to preserve programs and still target a minimum fund balance of 6 percent at the end of 2023-24.” Under the plan passed by the school
board, a total of 65.2 positions would be eliminated, not all of which are full-time. Of this, 38.2 are teachers, paraeducators, (See School, page 5)
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(See Library, page 6)
s A crowd of students gathered in front of the Blaine school district office during an April 24 walkout to protest the district’s plans to cut about 65 part-time and full-time employees, including teachers, paraeducators, librarians and staff from administration, food service and transportation. The district says the reduced education plan, which the school board approved 4-0 with one abstention, is mainly due to a smaller-than-projected student enrollment and decreased government funding. Photo by Janell Kortlover
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Whatcom County Library System (WCLS) will move forward with plans to renovate the Vogt family homestead into a library express after Washington state legislature approved the project’s reallocation of a $2 million state grant, according to an April 25 announcement. The funding will be used to turn the library site, at 7968 Birch Bay Drive, into the Birch Bay Vogt Library Express, which will offer a small collection of library materials, computer and internet access, and other library programs while acting as a community gathering spot for meetings up to 40 people. The $2 million grant will cover most of the costs of renovation, according to the press release, but local nonprofit Friends of Birch Bay Library must raise an additional $300,000 to fully fund the project. WCLS executive director Christine Perkins said it is standard procedure to have local community support partially fund such projects. The state grant was originally intended to fund building a 7,600-square-foot public library on the former Vogt property that would have cost $6.5 million. However, Birch Bay voters twice narrowly rejected creating a library capital facility area that would have created a taxing district to pay for $4 million of the $6.5 million library project. Voters opposed the district in the November 2021 and February 2022 elections, the latter of which failed the supermajority by only 26 votes. In June 2022, the WCLS Board of Trustees decided on a scope change and proposed a $2.5 million interior remodel of the building to create a library express to the state. The reallocation request was initially denied in December 2022, but the state reversed its decision in April following community member, library staff and state legislator outreach. Perkins said WCLS staff was dancing a happy dance when they heard the project had been approved. “We know that the Birch Bay community has been waiting a long time for a community library,” Perkins said. “We are grateful for their patience and persistence. And we are really grateful to our state legislators for supporting this project.”
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