Spokane-area school districts brace for staffing adjustments, budget challenges as state mulls spending plan

As the Legislature enters the final week of its regular session, local school district officials wait with bated breath to see how much they’ll be allotted from the state’s two-year budget that has yet to be finalized.

For school leaders, state apportionment is top of mind when drafting their own spending plans that are mostly made up of state funding.

Spokane Public Schools, for one, is preparing to reduce next year’s operating budget by about $15 million. Their spending plan this year provided $590 million in expenditures with $574 million in revenue.

The cuts are part of a five-year plan to shrink spending for myriad factors, including the total expiration of pandemic-era emergency federal dollars and historic levels of inflation.

The district plans to adjust with attrition, leaving positions unfilled as employees retire or leave their jobs. It’s the district’s third year shrinking the workforce, said school employees’ union President Jeremy Shay. To fill necessary roles as they arise, it will issue “involuntary transfers” of staff who may be needed in other schools, grade levels or content areas. Shay expects 40 to 50 staff will be transferred, dozens more than is typical, but each year the district transfers staff.

“Student populations fluctuate, staffing fluctuates, and we have to put people where the kids are,” Shay said. “This is a natural process, and there are many factors that influence how many people get transferred every year.”

Staff selected for transfer will convene in a meeting where they’ll select from open positions that still need filling, Shay said.

District spokesperson Ryan Lancaster said they don’t anticipate layoffs or reductions in force, which must be issued by mid-May.

“We’re accomplishing this through staff attrition and by identifying efficiencies that result in the least possible disruptions to program and service levels,” Lancaster wrote in an email.

It’s a slightly familiar feeling for administration at Central Valley School District, the second-highest enrolled in the county, serving Spokane Valley and Liberty Lake. Spokesperson Marla Nunberg said their “belt tightening” occurred in spring of 2023 when the district’s federal emergency COVID funding began to wind down. This year, they’re not planning significant budget or staffing reductions.

Central Valley’s administration used these federal dollars to hire staff, and when that one-time funding expired, they didn’t renew the contracts of 58 teachers still in their probationary period. In the years since, they’ve been able to rehire approximately 45, giving these former educators priority in hiring. Attrition and enrollment on the rise has allowed the district to hire more teachers.

Central Valley also will involuntarily transfer staff, a typical process in every district every year.

The district expects a revenue increase of about 4% each year until 2028, with a 5% increase in expenditures. This year, they’d planned to spend $256 million while making $259 million. CV’s fund balance, “rainy day” cash on hand, is expected to work its way up to $25 million by 2027, above the 8% threshold that is the comfort zone for school districts.

Mead School District, the county’s third-highest enrolled, is aiming for this sweet spot but has much longer to reach it. Since 2021, Mead has spent more than it’s taken in by anywhere from $650,000 to $2.1 million each year, supplementing with the fund balance. This year, the district had only $7 million in its fund balance, $500,000 of that not tied to specific buildings or programs and available for use wherever needed.

Mead Superintendent Travis Hanson said it’s his goal to not spend fund balance monies in next year’s budget. Awaiting his district’s enrollment projections, the state’s budget decisions and ever-present haziness surrounding federal apportionment, he said it’s too soon to say what their budget will look like.

“Given the fact we’ve spent significant fund balance in previous years to maintain programs and staffing, it’s not a practice that’s sustainable,” Hanson said.

While he couldn’t share specifics on what changes could befall his district’s course or program offerings, he shared that there are some niche courses with a handful of students enrolled that may not be financially viable next year.

“Enrollment is the lifeblood of those programs, plain and simple. If you see enrollment drop in any particular area, those are always classes and programs we keep our eyes on,” Hanson said. “Committing to keeping a particular offering when numbers dwindle becomes financially difficult.”

Like the rest, Mead also will likely issue involuntary transfers and reassignments when necessary. They have until mid-May to decide what staffing levels look like.

“These are all kinds of options on the table before you get to the place of issuing (reduction in force) notices,” Hanson said.

With so much uncertainty in other revenue sources, Hanson said he is “exceptionally grateful” for local taxpayers providing the one area they can rely on for the next few years: their levy. They collected around $27 million in local property taxes, over 15% of their total revenue, from their levy this year. These funds pay for staffing and programs that fall outside the state’s designation of “basic education.”

“We’re going to see a few million increase in revenue from local taxpayers that will be exceptionally helpful in maintaining staff and programs,” Hanson said.