EDMONDS, Wash. — The Edmonds School Board will hold a meeting on Tuesday evening to discuss ways to address a shortfall in the 2024-2025 school year budget. Programs like music and art could face further cuts.
The district's website says they face a $10.6 million shortfall and must reduce next year's spending by 2.65%. District families were invited to participate in a budget simulation, identifying their priorities for spending for the next school year. That data will be reviewed at Tuesday's meeting.
The district said it is still working on realigning its spending with its revenue streams and faced a $15 million shortfall heading into the 2023-2024 school year. Schools like Mountlake Terrace High School lost choir, two drama classes and a few other music offerings.
The district and union leaders have been vocal in lobbying the state to provide more funding to schools, and rework state funding models for education. The school board is pointing to the state's failure to fully fund certain school expenses as a reason for the current shortfall, citing staff wage increases, special education funding, payment of certified and classified substitutes and district insurance costs and utilities as major expenses for which the district must foot a majority of the bill.
"Don't tweak it, overhaul it, redo it, it is a mess," Edmonds School Board President Nancy Katims said to KING 5 about school funding models in January. "This is happening everywhere. This isn't just one district that's mismanaging money- it's statewide and lawmakers have to face that."
Although the district will receive hundreds of millions from recently passed voter-approved bonds and levies, those will not address the current shortfall, the district warned parents. The district is limited in how it may use that money, and the funds can't be used for day-to-day costs.