SEATTLE – It’s puzzling to consider the Seattle school district’s budget nightmares over the past few years, and then review its travel expenses.

The district was forced to cut $34 million from its budget in 2009-10, $31 million in 2010-11, $45 million in 2011-12 and $23.5 million in 2012-13, according to district budget documents.

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In the spring of 2013, the district implemented a “non-critical hiring and spending freeze,” in response to an anticipated $18 million budget deficit for 2013-14.

Apparently an increase in state funding ended up saving the district from major cuts in that fiscal year, but as the superintendent noted in his budget message, the extra funding “does not offset” the cuts that were made in the previous four years.

That means a lot of people and programs that were cut had yet to be reinstated.

Yet at the same time the Seattle district spent $500,662 in the 2013-14 fiscal year on hotel, airline and other travel expenses.

That doesn’t seem like the travel budget of an organization that was still reeling from a combined $133 million worth of budget cuts over the previous four years.

Concerned Seattle journalists and taxpayers might be wise to closely scrutinize district travel records, to determine where the money came from for all the travel, and whether the travel produced worthwhile benefits for the district.

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What percentage of the travel expenses came from district coffers versus state or federal grants? And regardless of the source, couldn’t some or all of that money have been used to address more pressing needs in the district? If not, why not?

Documents obtained from Seattle Public Schools reveal that the district had at least 131 transactions at various hotels throughout the nation in 2013-14, totaling $149,066.

The vast majority of them were made through four travel agencies – Travel Leaders ($114,555), Scan East West Travel ($7,930), Lake City Travel and Cruise ($7,420) and EPN Travel Services ($5,970).

The district had 16 transactions at a hotel in Yakima, Washington on three different days in June 2014 for a total of $4,150. There were six transactions at a hotel in Chicago July 3-11, 2014 totaling $7,347.

There were ten transactions listed “hotel-New York” between June 12-24, 2014 totaling $18,862. There were seven transactions at a hotel in Las Vegas in the first week of July 2014 totaling $6,721.

Those are just a few of the more expensive examples from the list.

Documents also reveal that the school district made a minimum of 84 transactions for airline tickets in 2013-14, totaling $65,634.

But the travel expenses don’t end there. The district also provided two extra lists of transactions arranged through two different travel agencies that were only listed as “travel.”

One of those lists, of transactions arranged through the Travel Leaders agency, was much larger and more expensive that the specific hotel or airline lists. It recorded 322 transactions for a whopping total of $239,914.

One of those transactions, done on March 26, 2014, came to $5,103. Another, on Feb. 20, 2014, came to $8,584. Two more, on April 8, 2014 and March 12, 2014, came to $9,423 and $12,930, respectively.

There were 76 of other non-specific transactions done through Scan East West Travel, totaling $45,027.