For Schools (and Their Budgets) Now is a Terrible Time

I have received from several readers this March notice from SPS about the budget. Here's the link to the Budget page at SPS.

Principals are developing their building’s budget for the next school year. Budgets are like road maps for schools. They guide us as we work to prioritize inclusive and high-quality education for our students. 

Our main goal is to make sure your student gets a great education, even when we face challenges. Right now, we’re dealing with a $104 million budget shortfall. This happened because Washington state is facing an educational funding gap, and there are fewer students enrolled at SPS. We also no longer have some funds we received in the past. 

To achieve a balanced budget, we know we must make changes. We are approaching these decisions in a thoughtful way to ensure we minimize negative impacts on student learning. 

Here are some things you should know: 

• How We Plan: Every February, school funding is determined by student enrollment projections for next year. Schools use a guide called the Purple Book to plan. You can find it on our budget webpage.  
• Working Together: Schools are working with their communities to plan budgets that match their continuous improvement and racial equity action plans.  
• Changes Coming: All principals will have less money for discretionary spending in their budgets. Middle schools and high schools may see some small changes in staffing, leading to slightly bigger class sizes. These changes will help save about $7.3 million. 
• Community Voice Matters: This month, we are hosting several equity-focused, small group discussions with our students and families. Later this spring, we will be hosting well-resourced schools informational meetings for all families, staff, and community. 
• What’s Next: Our superintendent is looking at more ways to fix the budget. On March 20, the School Board will hear a status update for 2024-25 budget from the central office leadership team. The School Board will decide on the budget in July. 

First, the district should NOT be having private meetings with some communities.  "This month, we are hosting several equity-focused, small group discussions with our students and families." If SPS is a community, then these meetings should be for all. At the very least, those meetings should be either available to watch via Zoom or videotaped. ALL members of the SPS community have a right to know what the district is saying or asking about budgeting. 

The "later this spring meetings" are being deemed "informational" and that doesn't sound like a discussion. 

As well, I saw this from a middle school principal today. I'm not going to mention the school because I found this principal to be blunt about the situation and while I applaud that courage, I worry that principal will get called on the carpet for it. Bold mine.

Budget and Staffing Allocations for 2024-25 School Year

 

Per the all-families email from the District Office on Wednesday, the budget and staffing allocations that came out last week have been pretty challenging for buildings to digest. For example, as stated in the District communication, all schools are taking a “hit” to their discretionary funding for next year. Discretionary funding are the dollar allocations that buildings use for supplies, tutors, interventions, guest speakers, substitutes for staff development, etc. – the basics to run a “well-resourced school.” Schools also use Discretionary funding to buy up teachers so we have lower class sizes. 

 

For reasons that I do not completely understand, the District removed a set amount of discretionary funding per grade band across all schools: $5,000 for elementary, $25,000 for middle schools and $45,000 for high schools. To give context, School X's total discretionary budget last year was $75,000. The District has subtracted $25,000 leaving us with about $50,000 for us to run a school next year. 

 

With the increase in student-to-teacher case loads (up from 30-to-1 to 31-to-1 per class), we would LOVE to be able to buy up staffing to cut down on class sizes BUT, $50,000 would only get us two classes in our master schedule (40% of a teacher) and we would have no dollars for supplies and all of the other things we need to operate a school.

 

Finally, School X is half the size of most middle schools many of which have discretionary funds two or more times larger than ours. But still, all middle schools’ discretionary funds were cut by the same amount.

Gotta say, that does seem unfair for an across-the-board cut for all schools, given the population sizes. I did like that swipe at "well-resourced schools."

 

What have you heard from your principal?