At the April 15 Edmonds School District board meeting, district staff are scheduled to present a first look into potential staff cuts for the 2025-26 school year. This comes as the district faces a projected $8.5 million budget shortfall next year, according to early budget estimates revealed February at a special school board meeting.

Final budget estimates aren’t expected until June 24, but the district has a clearer picture of next year’s financial state as the state legislative session nears its conclusion on April 27. If the district is to secure any additional funding next year, staff predict it will come from the state.

However, local education leaders say state legislators “are not meeting their Constitutional duty” to ensure “ample provision for the education of all children,”  according to a letter signed by Edmonds School District Superintendent Dr. Rebecca Miner, Edmonds School District Board of Directors President Dr. Nancy Katims and Edmonds Education Association President Andi Nofziger. 

In an interview last month with Lynnwood Today, Nofzinger said that if lawmakers don’t support education funding bills now being considered in Olympia, she prefers the district spend its savings before making more budget cuts

“Savings are for rainy days, and it’s pouring now,” she said. “…Let’s not make all these horrible cuts. Let’s just say that we’re going to do right by kids, and if that means that we go bankrupt because the state isn’t giving us money, then so be it. All the superintendents across the state should join hands and jump into bankruptcy together, instead of just, you know, taking a chainsaw to the students’ education.” 

In March, the district conducted a survey that highlighted options it is seriously considering to reduce its projected deficit. Staff reductions were among the potential options, and a first reading of a potential staff reduction plan is scheduled for Tuesday’s board meeting. Depending on what the Legislature decides,  the board of directors is scheduled to vote on the proposed staff cuts April 29, according to the district’s website. 

The board is set to have a first reading of the 2025-26 budget at its June 24 meeting, and a potential vote to adopt on July 8. 

What’s on the line? 

The district in March released a“Balancing Act” budget simulation – an open call for the public to weigh in on how the district spends its money. This was the first look into additional revenue options the district is considering for next year, along with potential cuts to positions, district spokesperson Curtis Campbell told Lynnwood Today. 

The simulation broke down the district’s budget, showing where the district can – and can’t – adjust spending and revenue options for 2025-26. The district is limited in how it can spend its money, with a large portion of revenue committed to staffing under negotiated contracts or to things the state requires the district to pay for, Lydia Sellie, the district’s executive director of business and finance, said at a special school board meeting in February. 

The survey included 18 expense and revenue options, listing how much money the district currently earns from or spends on these items. Participants voted “yes” or “no” to each option until the simulated budget was balanced.

Over 1,100 people – including parents, staff, students and members of the public – participated in the simulation, with almost 100 pages of additional comments submitted, the district’s website says. 

Results show the majority of participants voted in favor of cutting back support staff positions and school programs to close the deficit, and increasing rates, fees and program tuitions to increase revenue. 

Scenarios on the survey included cutting all middle school athletics and substance abuse specialists and reducing building budgets by 5%. To increase revenues, the survey included the option to increase preschool, summer school and Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program tuition costs for out-of-district students.

One scenario on the survey was to potentially eliminate student intervention coordinators (SInCs) districtwide. Over 88% of participants voted “yes” to this scenario. 

“Often, we have students that need additional support, like a daily check-in with a caring adult or the ability to take a break when they are overstimulated; our [student intervention coordinators] are often this person, working closely with our school counselors to implement support plans,” District Superintendent of Human Resources Rob Baumgartner told Lynnwood Today in an email. “SInCs administer student discipline and collaborate with families to help students be more successful. Many SInCs play a key role in monitoring student attendance and, when issues arise, working closely with students and their families to improve attendance.”  

Here are other potential expense cuts with a majority of “yes” votes and estimated savings for the 2025-26 school year: 

– 83% of survey participants voted in favor of eliminating the receptionist position at the district’s office building. Estimated savings: $88,000. 

– 80% voted in favor of cutting teachers on special assignment (TOSA) charged to basic education. These teachers provide extra classroom support to other teachers in certain curricular areas, such as math and reading.  Estimated savings: $72,000. 

– 74% voted in favor of implementing a “grab n go” breakfast model instead of a seated breakfast. Estimated savings: $50,000. 

– 72% voted in favor of cutting middle school athletics districtwide. Estimated savings: $315,000.

– 66% voted in favor of reducing building (and supplies) budgets by an additional 5%. Estimated savings: $43,000.

– 67% voted in favor of cutting student-run safety patrol at the elementary level. Stipends are provided to staff to oversee the program. Estimated savings: $100,000. 

– 63% voted in favor of cutting substance abuse prevention and intervention specialists at the high school level. Estimated savings: $112,000. 

– 55% voted in favor of cutting middle and high school intramural sports. Estimated savings: $15,000. 

Potential revenue increase with a majority of “yes” votes and estimated savings for the 2025-26 school year:

– 85% voted in favor of increasing facility rental fees by $2 per hour. Estimated revenue increase: $80,000. 

– 81% voted in favor of increasing online credit card processing fees from $2 to $3 per transaction. Estimated revenue increase: $40,000.

– 75% voted in favor of increasing Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program tuition for out-of-district students by 5%. Estimated revenue increase: $187,000. 

– 71% voted in favor of increasing high school athletic fees from $200 to $225. Estimated revenue increase: $43,000.

– 66% voted in favor of increasing preschool by 10%. Estimated revenue increase: $28,100. 

– 59% voted in favor of increasing summer school tuition by 10%. Estimated revenue  increase: $19,500. 

More information on Balancing Act simulation results can be found here. 

‘Kids don’t get a second chance at an education’

The district cut $25 million from its budget during the last two years alone by slashing staff and eliminating a range of music, sports, extracurricular activities and student support services districtwide. 

“Everybody in the district was impacted, from the superintendent to every student,” Nofzinger said. “Class sizes are bigger because they reduced staffing to schools. They reduced office support, they reduced behavior support, fifth-grade music was cut. …There’s no one who wasn’t touched by the cuts last year.”

In April 2024, the school board approved a “Reduced Educational Program” in an effort to chip away at its projected $10.6 million deficit for the 2024-25 school year. The proposed budget adjustments included over $7 million worth of cuts to expenses and around $527,000 in revenue increases. 

Mya Phin, a senior at Mountlake Terrace High School, said budget cuts are part of her high school experience. On multiple occasions, she and her peers had protested against cuts to music programs.She said she felt like it didn’t make a difference. 

“My sophomore year, we faced a lot of big budget cuts then as well and we had to protest a lot,” Phin said in an interview. “Unfortunately it felt like it didn’t really make a huge difference at the time, because we would go to the district building and protest and play music and try our best to convince higher-ups that music was important, not just for education, but for community and for individual students. And that didn’t change very much and we still ended up losing a couple of our classes to budget cuts.” 

Phin was in middle school when the pandemic hit, which reduced  in-person interactions as a whole and took music programs away from students in their formative years. 

“For me, the [music] community has been so, so important,” she said. “…especially during COVID where a lot of people had to deal with mental health or stuff like that. It was always good having those friends who I made through that program be there to support me and be there for each other.”

‘The paramount duty of the state’

In February 2024, district voters approved the 2024 school construction bond and replacement technology capital levy., The district is set to collect over $700 million in property taxes through 2028 to pay for construction, and material and technology upgrades districtwide. 

Despite the new levy funding, the district says it still expects to fall short. In fact, there are multiple instances in which the district predicts it will have to rely on taxpayer dollars in areas where state funding falls short of demand, according to the district’s website.  

For the 2024-25 school year, the Edmonds School District estimates it will spend $9 million in levy funds to cover the cost of special education services not funded by the state. However, the district will likely see an increase in funding after the passage of a $2 billion special education funding bill passed by state lawmakers on March 13. 

The state requires all districts in Washington to allocate a certain amount of money for salaries and insurance, the district says. While the state does provide financial aid for these expenses, it doesn’t cover what is needed. For the 2025-26 school year, the district expects to fall short of state salary requirements by $2.5 million and $2.9 million short of insurance requirements. 

How the state decides to fund education is largely out of the district’s hands, Nofzinger said. However, she wishes district leaders would have sounded the alarm bells earlier. 

“I wish that the board and our school leaders had gotten politically active sooner,” she said. “So often it’s the burden of the union to be doing the advocating for school funding. And finally, this year, we’ve seen superintendents and school boards across the state start helping with that. I wish that would have come sooner, because we might be a few years closer to a sustainable funding model. But I’m glad they’ve joined in. Then it’s not just the union and the teachers who are saying that the state funding system is broken now.” 

— Contact Ashley at ashley@myedmondsnews.com.