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This page maintains an archive of relevant information to help parents stay informed on the school district budget deficit challenges faced across the greater Seattle area and possible options. So we, as Bellevue Parents, can better equipped to contribute to BSD's solutions to the expected budget deficit for 2024-2025, while minimizing negative impact to students, staff and school operations (i.e. identifying practical alternative options other than middle school closure).
Washington State Public School Basics
School District Operation Model
Overview and callouts sourced from A citizen's guide to WA K-12 Finance (2022)
Washington is considered a "local control" state. Each school district is governed by a locally-elected school board that has broad discretionary power to determine and adopt policies for effective management and operation of the school district. Each school board hires a Superintendent who oversees the day-to-day school district operation.
Financial Operation: Typically, the biggest fund sources are from state apportionment and local tax levies. At high level, state general apportionment amount is largely driven by student enrollment.
To provide some tangible reference of how school districts enrollment and revenue look like, the following table lists several school districts in King county with 2021-2022 School Year enrollment and revenue data sourced from ospi section three 2021-2022 table 1.
Macro Context - Public School Budget Deficit Challenges
Two main factors (both related to the pandemic) put major pressures on public school budget starting 2023-2024 plan. 1) Federal fund (ESSER) for mitigating pandemic impact will end by 2024 Sep; 2) public schools suffered major student enrollment decline across the state during the pandemic especially for more densely populated urban areas, these enrollment decline led to sizable state fund drop, which in turn causes big gap in the school district budget when extra federal fund ESSER expires.
BSD Responses To Budget Deficits
In Mar 2023, BSD board approved (vote 3:2) the plan of closing two elementary schools and other cost reduction measures. In Oct 2023, BSD engaged parents on the option of middle school consolidation to address upcoming budget deficit due to forecasted further enrollment decline.
Other King County School Districts' Responses
Issaquah School District (ISD)
ISD Board Meeting Dec 6 2023 update: Initial 2024-2025 enrollment projections indicate slight decline YoY, projecting a flat year end fund balance for 2023-2024. School closures are not under consideration. See details here.
ISD's 2023-2024 budget plan guide (Aug 2023). Summary callouts:
Major budget drivers toward balancing the budget: 1) various state revenue increase of 10.8M; 2) 9M reduction primarily from central administration and operations; 3) increase of local levy authority of 3M; 4) projected enrollment decline of 210 students (-2.4M); and a few other items.
Special education enrollment has been increasing rapidly year over year and significantly during 2022-23.
Enrollment projection: 100-200 decline YoY for 2023-2025, then small increase starting 2026 through 2028.
ISD budget review and hearing Aug-8-2023
Quick intro on role of school district board and how school district operate https://www.isd411.org/about-us/school-board
Lake Washington School District (LWSD)
LWSD 2023-2024 budget plan (Aug 2023). Summary callouts:
Has a strong financial standing in its General Fund: reflecting revenue increase of 29.1M from state revenue increase and increase in budgeted enrollment from prior year; reflecting expenditure increase of 9M due to staff compensation etc. though FTE staff reduces by 31 from 3308 to 3277 to align with budget.
2022-2023 actual enrollment is higher than 2021-2022 actual. 2023-2024 budgeted enrollment (30722) is higher than 2022-2023 budgeted (30440), but lower than 2022-2023 actual. Revised student enrollment projection: starting in 2024-25, enrollment is projected decrease by approximately 0.7% per year though 2026-27 and then slow to a decrease of approximately 0.2% through 2028-29.
Strategic plan on 5 goal areas: 1) Academic Success; 2) Well-Being; 3) Community Engagement; 4) Excellent Staff; 5) Effective Use of Resources.
LWSD 2022-2023 budget plan. Including this previous budget plan for reference, there was an interesting callout on forecasted enrollment increase after 2023.
Northshore School District (NSD)
NSD Nov 13 2023 budget study session. Summary callouts:
Revised budget guiding principles:
Honor the District Strategic Plan as the foundational policy guidance (including its focus on Racial and Educational Justice as well as student outcomes). (Was #2)
Minimize the impact on students both in the classroom and in their educational experiences. (Was #4)
Keep schools open. (Was #5)
Comply with negotiated agreements.
Minimize reduction in force (RIF)
Preserve consistent and predictable operations and services to the extent possible while working to avoid any additional burdens on the work within classrooms. (Was #8)
Comply with state mandates (whether funded or not)
Conform with adopted, existing school board policies.
2023-2024 actual enrollment (22391) is higher than budgeted (22042), also higher than 2022-2023 actual (22317). Adjusted enrollment projection to be flat YOY.
Expected 21.5M budget gap for 2024-2025. Listed 12 potential areas of cost reduction (with estimated saving etc.) for consideration.
Seattle Public Schools (SPS)
In the news for reference: Nov 15, 2023 Seattle superintendent assures no school closures for 2024-25
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