Tumwater district to lay off 27 non-teaching staff as cuts closer to classrooms loom
The Tumwater School District has announced plans to eliminate 27 positions from next year’s budget to make up for its current budget deficit.
The assistant superintendent said it’s only the first step in a series of difficult decisions to come, with more cuts closer to the classroom expected in the next few weeks.
A virtual budget town hall will take place at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 5 on Zoom.
Assistant superintendent Ben Rarick said the district has been spending more money than it’s bringing in on an annual basis, an issue not uncommon among districts across the region. Districts are blaming inadequate funding from the state.
“We feel like the programs and services that we offer in Tumwater are strong for students,” Rarick said. “We are not by any means anxious to reduce those services, but the ongoing revenue structure that the legislature makes available to us just simply does not support the level of expenditure.”
He said the district is continuing to feel the effects the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused enrollment to drop in most districts. While the pandemic came with more federal school funding, that money has now been fully spent and the cost of more staff and programming put back on the district.
Kira Acker, Tumwater’s director of finance and operations, said in the 2023-2024 school year, the district ran a deficit of about $4.5 million. The district is expecting the same deficit by the end of the 2024-2025 school year, another $4 million.
She said despite projecting lower enrollment numbers for this school year, the district is still below budget by about 40 students. The state formula funds on a per-student basis.
“It really impacts those revenues, and then when you still have the same staffing model, then it has to be adjusted to offset the decline in revenue,” Acker said.
Rarick said Superintendent Kevin Bogatin began communicating with school employees in October 2024 about the budget issues and potential for layoffs. The next six to eight weeks are when staffing reduction decisions will be made.
Rarick said the school board was presented with the conceptual options for how to tackle the district’s budget shortfall. He said Option A was to eliminate the operating deficit of about $4.5 million. Option B was to eliminate the operating deficit, and build in a small operating surplus to build back up to the district’s minimum fund balance.
Option C was to make enough cuts to bring the district immediately back to compliance with its fund balance policy. The board has chosen to move forward with Option B, which means finding about $6 million in cuts.
Rarick said to expect a combination of non-salary cost cutting and efficiencies, as well as staffing cuts. Layoffs are expected to happen before the start of the 2025–2026 school year.
Layoff details
The school board unanimously voted Jan. 23 to cut at least 27 district office and support services positions from next year’s budget.
The cuts include 5 administrators and managers. They are the Director of Career/Technical Education, Assistant Director of Special Services, Assistant Supervisor of Transportation, the Safety and Security Manager and the Network Manager.
Five office professional support positions will be cut as well. They’re in Career/Technical Education, Student Learning, Finance, Administration and Special Services.
The Executive Assistant of Student Learning, as well as one district office paraeducator will be cut.
Five custodial and maintenance positions will be cut. Seven bus aides and a dispatcher were also on the list.
Two support services technicians will be cut as well.
In addition to the positions being cut, Superintendent Bogatin plans to freeze wages and salaries for non-represented and administrative staff for the next school year.
All administrators will be required to take three unpaid furlough days next school year. Bogatin and Rarick will take four unpaid furlough days.
Bogatin also will implement a leave cash-out deferral option for the 2024-2025 school year for applicable staff.
Cutting positions will save the district approximately $2.3 million and the wage and salary freeze plus the furloughed positions will save about $325,000.
The board is likely to consider another resolution that will look at reducing school positions, including teachers. Rarick said decisions on teacher layoffs will be based on seniority.
Rarick said the board wants to be conservative in their approach to the budget deficit, but at the same time they’re borrowing money from the capital projects account this year to pay monthly bills.
“All of these cuts will be difficult. They will all have an impact. There’s no waste here. There’s no fraud here,” Rarick said. “This is simply an issue of affordability.”
“Our estimates right now, the district will run out of cash — just let that sink in for a second — the district will literally run out of cash in a month.”
This story was originally published February 5, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
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