EDMONDS, Wash. — The Edmonds School District will hold a regular school board meeting on Tuesday night.
The district said it's facing a $15 million budget shortfall due to declining student enrollment and inadequate state funding.
About 50 teaching positions as well as classified and administrative jobs are on the chopping block. Cuts to special education and fine arts were proposed.
When it comes to the proposed cuts, the president of the Edmonds Education Association, Andi Nofziger-Meadows, said kids, parents, and staff "are upset."
"We all want to do what's best for kids and we know that the proposed cuts set us up in a position that we can't," Nofziger-Meadows said. "Our position is that the district needs to look at district-level departments and positions for cuts and keep the cuts as far away from kids in the classrooms, as they can, some of the proposals are just preposterous."
The union president said the proposed cuts to school social workers would "damage" the district's most vulnerable students.
"Every kid matters," Nofziger-Meadows said. "It's not OK to have cuts that are going to severely damage the connection that students feel to school."
In the case of proposed cuts to electives such as arts and music, Nofziger-Meadows said that would also be damaging to vulnerable students.
The district told KING 5 the following: "We want to address some of the concerns of elective course offerings for next school year. With the elimination of enrollment mitigation funds, we are unable to support small class sizes. Schools are provided with a staffing allocation based on enrollment. Elective courses offered are driven by student choice. If there are not enough students signed up for a particular course, the school has to determine if courses can be combined. If not, the school cannot offer the elective at the expense of larger class sizes in other courses."
Students in music programs at Mountlake Terrace High School rallied outside their school last week and before the school board meeting on April 18. The school's music boosters president said many students and parents plan to rally again about an hour before the school board meeting.
Members of the MTHS Jazz 2 large ensemble won its division at a competition at the University of Idaho over the weekend. The booster's president said some students felt it was a "bittersweet" moment for the group to win.
The Tuesday night meeting is expected to be well-attended after a large crowd in person and online last week at the April 18 budget presentation and school board meeting. About 2,500 people watched that live stream and more than 160 people spoke at the meeting, or submitted comments.
A spokesperson for the district said, "The School Board and Superintendent are grateful for all the feedback received through email, as well as written and public comments at the Special School Board Meeting on Tuesday, April 18. We appreciate the time taken to share them. We are considering all feedback. These are challenging financial times as the district faces a $15 million budget shortfall for the 2023-24 school year. We understand these reductions will be felt widely and acknowledge the impact to our community."
The school board meeting with an expected budget vote is set to begin at 6:30 p.m. It will be held at the Edmonds School District Office in Lynnwood.