Final Push Towards Seattle Schools' 2025-2026 Budget

Update:

What I have been told is that $14M came from the Economic Stabilization Fund as a deferral. This is what was in the last budget update from staff to the Board. Also in that report was "Fiscal Year 23-24 Assigned Fund Balance ($42.4M). That is a fancy way of saying that $42M is underspend from that school year. (I was also told that underspend in previous years is usually $80-100M.)

Two things I find confusing. First, I just don't get this underspend being so high year to year. It certainly makes for very slushy money management that would be hard to track. Second, interesting how the Rainy Day Fund from last year was around $42M and the underspend from last year was around $42M. 

end of update

 The Seattle Times has a story on the work towards the budget for 2025-2026, 

Seattle Public Schools presents balanced budget — for now

An influx of state aid and some one-time measures will allow Seattle Public Schools to balance next school year’s budget.

While SPS will erase the projected $100 million-to-$104 million deficit in its proposed $1.35 billion budget for the next school year, the underlying factors behind the district’s yearslong structural deficit remain.

That means the district could be in the red by as much as $87 million for 2026-27 even before next school year starts.

Again, as in the recent past for budgets, not good.

The district was relying heavily on the state to help close the deficit and stave off program and staff cuts.

It was hoping to net as much as $60 million from legislative changes in this year’s session. It got about $26 million. To shave off the rest of the deficit, the SPS budget proposed last week will use $42 million from its reserve and $4 million from interest in its capital fund and delay repaying a portion of a loan that helped with a previous year’s deficit and replenishing its reserves.

It’s also making $5.4 million in cuts to the central and administrative offices through a combination of furloughs, job cuts and other changes.

They hoped for $60M from the Legislature and got $26M. I guess the moral of that story is to be grateful for what you get but they didn't even get half of what they wanted. Also,

I will say this over and over (and I hope to get an answer from the district) - last year's budget was said to use the entire Rainy Day fund of $42M. I wrote that from direct quotes from staff. This also appeared in the Times, KUOW, etc. But NOW, staff claims they will use that EXACT amount from the EXACT same fund. 

So what's up with that? The Board should ask but I doubt they will.

However, there is good news. Librarian hours will NOT be cut. But,

The district issued about 14 reduction-in-force notices to school-based staff. That number includes three social workers, according to the Seattle Education Association.

As to where principals are on school staffing:

Still, individual schools could see staffing changes because schools got their budget in February, and principals have already decided which positions the money would cover.

That has been a sticking point for the School Board. Some directors have argued that most of the budget is already committed by the time the proposal gets to the board.

Rankin called the proposal disappointing. She argued that the district won’t see significant changes in student outcomes unless it changes how it spends and allocates money.  

“We have a lot of control over how we spend our money,” Rankin said. “And the preliminary budget proposal shows that the superintendent and staff are recommending that we make no changes to how we staff buildings, no changes to instructional approaches, no changes to professional development. It’s basically unresponsive to conversations over the last year and a half.”

Rankin also alluded to not closing schools as an issue. 

What is head-shaking about her longer statement above is that I didn't hear her say, during budget work sessions, that they needed to change "instructional approaches" and "PD" to save money. What is it that she thinks they can do with those areas that will help the budget? 

The public hearing on the budget proposal will be at the June 4 meeting, with a final adoption scheduled for July 1.

June 4th is next week. So it certainly will be interesting if the Board has any pushback at this point. Again, I doubt it. To note, June 4th is the next regularly scheduled Board meeting and I assume the legally required public hearing for the budget is either before the meeting or during the meeting.