Olympia schools superintendent says $17M budget deficit is result of ‘perfect storm’
.jpg "Knox Building, the Olympia School District main office.")
The Olympia School District is facing a $17 million budget shortfall for the 2023-2024 school year, the result of a number of factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic.
School officials now have the difficult task of creating a plan to address it.
Superintendent Patrick Murphy says layoffs are expected, due to enrollment dropping in the 9,000-student district. Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, the district has lost 700 students. Next year’s projected enrollment is lower than it was 10 years ago, but there are still 281 more staff budgeted this year than in 2013.
The district plans to send out surveys to families to allow them to express their concerns and views on what should be prioritized for funding.
“We have to have some really tough, challenging conversations this spring, while we are advocating, lobbying and fighting for this school district to receive the funding that we believe is necessary to continue the important work we’ve been doing since COVID hit,” Murphy said.
ESSER funding will be gone soon
OSD finance director Kate Davis said the district got a little too comfortable with extra state and federal funding coming in during the pandemic. After receiving an influx of federal money from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief program, the district hired medical staff, counselors and other positions that were needed even before the pandemic.
But assistant superintendent Jennifer Priddy said bringing on these new positions and programs such as family liaisons isn’t the only problem. The budget deficit includes trying to continue funding those positions without federal money.
However, even if the district cut every position funded originally by ESSER dollars, it still would be facing a deficit of more than $13 million, she said.
This federal funding will be depleted by the start of the 2023 school year.
Enrollment is down
Murphy said enrollment in OSD was not immune to the decline seen across the state, where 70% of school districts have seen enrollment drop since the pandemic.
At the same time that the district was losing students, it was hiring teachers to bring down class sizes for safety.
Murphy said enrollment drives revenue, since state funding is on a per-student basis. So to re-balance, teachers might be cut, small classrooms might be combined, and elementary schools might even be closed down the road. He said it’s about aligning resources.
Angela Fisher spoke during OSD’s Jan. 26 board meeting. A teacher at Reeves Middle School, she said she already was notified by her union president that she should look for another job because her one-year contract is up at the end of this school year.
Fisher said she worked her way up to being a full-time teacher, having worked as a paraprofessional and in other roles.
“I’m the teacher kids come to when they need a maxi pad or a bandaid,” she said. “I’m the teacher kids come to when they’re hungry and they need a granola bar, but my bag of snacks is almost empty and I won’t be able to refill it.”
She questioned how the district plans to grow enrollment if they’re proposing getting rid of beloved and talented teachers.
Cade Walker, a parent of a student at Capital High School, said cutting paraprofessionals and other support positions shouldn’t be an option.
OSD board member Maria Flores assured the public Feb. 9 that nothing has been decided yet.
Flores said it’s a long budgeting process for a reason. She said she’s glad to see significant turnout at board meetings and to hear people raising concerns about the deficit. She said she wants to make sure they share the message that the board is trying to make the smallest impact on students possible.
The 2012 McCleary decision
Murphy said it was a worry figuring out how the district was going to pay to keep staffing levels where they were when the pandemic first started. He said they have always been transparent about how the McCleary v. Washington state case that was decided in 2012 has hurt OSD.
Murphy said the state Supreme Court’s McCleary decision required the state to fully fund education, it hurt Olympia because the state formula didn’t regionalize schools in South Sound the same way others were within the I-5 corridor, and it limited levy money. The bottom line: Less money was coming in on a yearly basis, Murphy said.
Finance Director Davis said levy revenue was starting to rise to numbers seen before 2018. But now it is dipping again; a $1.6 million drop in revenue is expected in the next year.
The district also is paying $10 million more for special education than what was expected, with the state providing less backing. And thanks to inflation, items such as bus transportation, food and athletics are costing the district more than $2 million over what they planned.
Murphy said it has all combined to create the perfect storm.
Murphy said he loses sleep over the budget situation. He said the conversations they’re going to have are going to be painful and feel personal to some.
He said the board wants to make budget decisions alongside this year’s legislative process, in case something changes and fewer cuts are needed.
Assistant Superintendent Priddy said the district is hoping to have a final budget assessment by March. Then the board will consider an education reduction plan March 23 before possibly adopting it April 13.
This story was originally published February 16, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
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