3 employees could be laid off from Kiona-Benton City schools. Here’s why

Kiona-Benton City School District is considering laying off three employees as it heads into budgeting season. And teaching positions may also need to be trimmed by next fall.

Superintendent Pete Peterson told the Tri-City Herald he plans to recommend the school board eliminate three classified, non-contracted positions at its March 13 school board meeting.

He blames increases in gas and food prices for driving up their costs.

The district serves about 1,400 students and employs about 285 workers, with an annual budget of about $22 million and a reserve of about 5%.

The reduction is about 1% of the district’s total workforce.

“Our biggest thing is to make sure that the district is in sound financial shape and we don’t impact student services,” he said. “If there are things we can do now to ensure our reserves stay at a good spot, we’re going to do that. The biggest factor is simply our nonnegotiable costs, which are things like diesel fuels, food services — things in the budget that cannot be accounted for at a time of high inflation.”

There are currently no plans to cut any existing teaching positions, but Peterson said they were also looking at not filling some of the eight contracted teaching positions that will become available this summer when other staffers retire.

Peterson told the Herald that a budget presentation on Feb. 24 showed a list of options and the Kiona-Benton City School Board chose to look at attrition and reductions to their at-will staff instead of reductions to contracted employees, such as teachers and paraeducators.

Peterson was not immediately able to provide a dollar amount on the projected shortfall.

School districts across the state are dealing with budget stresses due to inflation and rising costs, Peterson said.