The Edmonds School Board voted April 23 to cut the school district’s 2024-2025 budget to compensate for a $10.6 million funding shortfall.
Eighteen speakers of all ages addressed the board members during the April 23 meeting to defend the arts and career and technical education (CTE) positions that would be cut, meaning the elimination of some educational programs.
Music, art and CTE are vulnerable to budget cuts because they are considered electives and not a core study such as English, math and science.
Superintendent Rebecca Miner said during the meeting that the classes and programs cut at the middle- and high school level will depend on the number of students who sign up for classes.
During public comments, Brier Elementary School music teacher Rochelle Hume explained to the school board the importance of elementary and middle school music programs and how diminishing of those programs will be felt in later years.
Hume gave the example of the loss of the Mountlake Terrace High School choir last year.
“Every part of this curriculum was designed by a collaborative, committed community of dedicated music teachers,” Hume said. “Leaving out any of the parts will have lasting effects.”
She said that even though the students are still getting a music education, not all beginning instrumental programs are created equal.
The Snohomish and Seattle school districts have sixth-grade beginning instruction four to five days per week versus the Edmonds twice-a-week model. The amount of instruction, Hume says, is a key aspect of those districts’ success.
Further, seventh and eighth graders cannot access or perform the same levels of music as other schools without an equitable learning foundation.
Speaker Don Tran credited his participation in school music programs with helping him receive an acceptance and full scholarship into his university of choice.
Another speaker, Liam Salas, graduated from Edmonds-Woodway High School and will soon graduate from the University of Washington with an engineering degree.
Salas explained to the board that his freshman year in high school was difficult, and he didn’t feel self-worth. The one thing he could depend on to pull him through his depression was going to jazz band every day.
Unrelated to the budget discussion, Christanna Fatty, a paraeducator with Work Experiences, a pre-vocational program that serves high school students with special needs, expressed her concern about the lack of input from staff, parents and guardians on changes to the program.
Fatty said that in the 30-minute meeting when the changes were communicated to her team, they asked what the plan was for the transition.
The response from leadership was, “There is no plan.”
Fatty expressed her concern about the timeframe for forming a transition plan and executing it transparently and with the involvement of staff, students and families.
The budget reductions came for a vote, and despite the public outpouring, the directors had to make the hard choice.
Director Hawk Cramer said “With great pain, I make a motion to approve.”
The directors unanimously passed the motion.
The numbers below do not necessarily reflect the number of positions lost, but the maximum number that can be cut for the 2024-25 school year.
Classified Reductions
– Up to 15 Professional Technical Positions
– Up to 2 Classified Administrator Positions
– Reduction in District-wide Custodial Hours
– Up to 4 Office Professional Positions
– Up to 12 hours/day ESC Office Professionals
– Up to 30 hours/day building Office Professionals
– Up to 20 Paraeducator Positions
Certificated Reductions
– Up to 26 FTE Certificated Staff
– 3 Certificated Central Office Administrators
– 1 Certificated Assistant Principal
Positions Vacated and Not To Be filled:
– 1 Assistant Superintendent
– 0.2 Classified Director (resignation)
– 1 Central Office Administrative Assistant
– 1 Central Office Professional
During the 2023-24 school year, the district had to reduce staff by almost 40 positions and over 250 staff hours.
In the meantime, the Foundation for Edmonds School District announced its $2.25 million Save the Arts Campaign to protect the district’s arts programs.
Director Keith Smith said during board comments that stable funding is needed and is possible, but it will require legislation.
Though he could not discuss options in depth during the meeting, Director Smith explained some possibilities in follow-up questions with My Neighborhood News Network. However, he admits that there is no perfect funding method.
One method, which Smith said will probably be unpopular, is to create a state income tax. Washington is one of only nine states without one.
Smith also suggested lowering the Washington State Estate Tax exemption from $2.193 million or lowering the state inheritance tax.
Another thing that would help, he said, is increasing the amount of affordable middle housing, such as condominiums.
“Because of the way the state does property taxes, it is more beneficial to tax a larger number of people a smaller amount,” Smith said. “It allows for you to gain more revenue without needing to raise any one person’s taxes, and it would help with our affordable-housing crisis.”
Also, there is a possible cap-and-trade system for pollution, with some of the funds going to education.
For now, Smith said students, parents, and guardians can only use their voices and voting power to hold legislators accountable for the promises made in their campaigns.
“I think that the stories that are being shared at our board meetings are great things to share. Point out the value of the arts and how budget cuts negatively impact children,” Smith said. “If nothing else, demand that state funding for education keep up with rising costs.”
In other business, the following items were approved after a single reading:
— Authorization for the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) replacement project at Mountlake Terrace High School.
— A DISH Wireless site lease agreement for a cellular communications facility at Meadowdale Playfields.
— The site lease agreement extension with Verizon Wireless for a cellular communications facility at Meadowdale Playfields.
— A contract to Pacific Mobile to move eight mobile classrooms from Oak Heights Elementary School.
The next board meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 14, at the district’s Educational Services Center, 20420 68th Ave. W., Lynnwood, WA 98036.
The meeting can be viewed online by clicking here.
To view the meeting agenda, click here.
— By Rick Sinnett
We all need to know where the millions from WA LOTTERY goes. Just who is benefitting?.. When many teachers received that 20%+ raise not that long ago, most knew then what the writing on the wall would read down the road.
Char:
Some info on the Lottery and school funding.
https://mikesteele.houserepublicans.wa.gov/2023/11/07/your-questions-answered-washington-state-lottery-funds-and-k-12-education/
The Lottery annual financial reports have more details. Rep Steele links to 2022. 2023 should be on the lottery’s site.
And my understanding is that that 20%+ raise put WA teachers as the highest paid in the nation.
I wish we’d see acknowledgement from school personnel about less state money because enrollments are down. And why are public school enrollments down? Could it have to do with shutting students out of school for so long even when students in non-public schools went back to the classroom much earlier? Could it have to do with parents’ objections to the progressive ideology that has penetrated public schools? Asking for more money without addressing the causes of the problem contributes to negative perceptions of public schools.
Large raises, dropping test scores and reduced enrollment. Not shocking the need for cuts. Pulled my kids out a few years ago and they got much better education for 70% of the average cost as a Edmonds SD student.
The tax payers are paying the superintendent $321,000 form an over $400,000,000 budget to educate less than 20,000 students. That is the tip of the administration iceberg. The salaries continue in the hundred thousand$ down to teachers at $124,000 with 14+ years in district and a masters+90. They are the ones who do the actual work of education. The public should be asking what they are getting for their money from management. The managers who don’t have even come in to work to do their job. They are not answerable for hours worked or tasks preformed. They are paid for general value of services preformed. Read their contract please. This district wastes millions on administration and management who have no effect on a students education. No student will ever say “the assistant to the assistant superintendent had a huge impact on my education.” That is reserved for Ms. Coghlan or Mr. Lee. We need to spend the money afforded to us by the taxpayers to do the educating of students in buildings that are clean and functional for our students with teachers and support staff offering the most choices we can offer. Stop cutting workers, electives and support staff and start cutting the salaries or number of waste administration positions that don’t educate or have meaningful impacts on students. Cut the fat not the workers!
Well said, Charles. The top Superintendent apparently took a voluntary pay cut, so maybe the rest of them will consider it as well. Imagine working in public education and making $200-300k when your students can’t even have music class.
Wouldn’t you think that a country that claims to love children so much and is the richest country in the world (so far) would be able to fully educate its children – especially since they will be the very people to carry on and lead our great country…This is not the fault of our school board, but our populace in general. Years ago when we were all getting the ‘big sell’ on a lottery in Washington State we were told that it would go to support public schools. What happened? Now the profits from the lottery go into the general fund. So we can afford to develop bigger and better bombs that will take out half the planet’s population, but we can’t afford to educate all of our children? We should be feeling shame.
Not up to speed with any late developments but the Capital Gains tax has produced over $800m and $500m is to be used for Early Learning. If that money is distributed uniformly around the state ESD would receive around $10m.
While we can be concerned about what just happened in funding and cuts maybe we can work on how best to use the CG funding for Early Learning. All the research shows Early Learning for all students works to improve outcomes like graduation rates and achievement levels in subject matter.
Nest up on the funding short fall issue may be lower enrollment in elementary schools. That may lead to some difficult conversations about school consolidation.
Research shows that competency in music helps Math reasoning, and visual arts training helps students with focus. The arts are NOT peripheral. Unfortunately, this trend in erasing the electives from the schedule to concentrate on STEM is rampant in this country. Soon we will be a nation that “educates” the basics but fails to enrich the soul.
So much for Edmonds being deemed a Creative District.
To clarify, Work Experiences is a pre-vocational program that serves high school students with special needs. We are not actually CTE accredited but wouldn’t that be a great idea! Work Experiences was started over 40 years ago because families wanted it for their children with special needs. People with disabilities are a large people group and the most underemployed and unemployed. The committee that made this recommendation left out important voices and information. They didn’t invite the program supervisor who had been there for over 20 years to join the committee or give input. The committee and process is in question. The parents and students voice weren’t considered. Many important voices like speech language pathologists and other specialist who support the program weren’t considered. The navigation to the website was removed from the district website and never communicated to the team, so parents couldn’t “shop”. Many parents and students do not want this. This is an important issue that should have so much consideration. This decision takes away from the community of people with disabilities instead of enhancing and creating more. It’s wrong.
Thanks for clarifying Work Experiences — we’ve edited the story to reflect.
Thanks! The last bit is that it was communicated to us that this was not financially driven. As far as we understand it wasn’t because of budget cuts.
Disgusting.
Darrol Haug, the first $500M of the Capital Gains Tax revenue is all earmarked for preschool and child care, through the Fair Start for Kids Act. https://www.dcyf.wa.gov/about/government-affairs/fair-start-for-kids-act None of that comes to K12 public education. The rest of it is for small districts that have been unable to pass construction bonds or levies.
Dr. Katims, thanks for your response. I am very aware of how the Capital Gains tax is to be used. What was meant when referring to Early Learning was for kids not yet in kindergarten. Typically, 3- and 4-year-old. While earmarking construction money for small districts sounds good, the current estimate is around $300m. That will not go very far with the cost of construction.
You may remember I served on the Capital Planning team for several years and learned that ESD already has programs for EL serving some kids in that age bracket. I also learned that the ESD has ideas for ways to expand EL. Maybe you could write a letter to the Editor about some of those ideas, they are very exciting!
Several citizens met with you when you asked the Edmonds to use some ARPA money to fund some staff positions for some schools. It would be interesting to learn if those positions were funding for the future as was suggested or if they were part of these announced cuts?
If you could share with us what ESD plans to do to help secure EL funding from the CG tax for the kids not currently being served by the current programs that would help us all see how we can advance EL for our kids.