White Salmon Valley School District Board of Directors hear budget update

Superintendent Rich Polkinghorn discussed legislative funding changes, highlighting a small increase in administrative, instructional and classified staffing allocations; 2.5% statewide compensation allocation; $82 per studentmaterials, supplies, and operating costs (MSOC) increase; and an increase in special education funding.

However, decreased enrollment continues to be a concern. Polkinghorn said state education dollars are dependent on full-time enrollment (FTE) numbers.  

“As we see the decrease in students, we also have a commensurate reduction in state apportionment,” he said.

The district gets a bump in students entering first and ninth grades due to private and/or homeschool students enrolling for the first time. “But beyond that, it’s really just rolling up the grade levels, grade over grade,” he said.

For the coming school year, the district is budgeting around an expected 1,038 FTE students, down from last year’s 1,063. Based on trends, the district’s “really rough” estimate for FTE by 2030 is about 915.

“If we want to have a sense of what our budget is going to look like [in the future], we need to make sure we’re paying attention to enrollment,” Polkinghorn said. “… We know, based on those projections, revenues are going to come down. So that means we need to adjust our expenditures accordingly over the next year — two, three, four — until we begin to see a more stabilized enrollment plan.”  

The overall message: The budget is tight.

“That’s the word I’ve been using with our principals — the budget for ’25-’26 is much tighter than the ’24-’25 budget costs,” Polkinghorn said. “Costs for materials and goods are up. There’s a lot of effort statewide done to lobby legislators for an increase in the MSOCs, which, we got a small increase, but it doesn’t come near enough to cover the sort of difference between inflationary costs, rising insurance costs, price of good costs … So, we’re just going to be leaner.”

WSVSD Business Manager Jim Brittain said the district will continue to analyze expenditures throughout the year, “so when we get into April, if we see we’re not making our enrollment numbers, then we might have to take a look and say, ‘Okay, what adjustments do we have to make in staff?’”

Salaries and benefits make up 69% of the district's total expenditures. Purchased services are 21%, with special education contracted out through Education Service District (ESD) 112, as are other professional services.

“In terms of our certified staffing levels, we’re down two positions this year from last year. We’re already starting to trim where we can,” Polkinghorn said. “Those were done through attrition without much fanfare … It worked out this year that the retirements were at the elementary level and that’s were we needed to make the reductions.”

Polkinghorn added that it looked like the federal government would be releasing the Title IV-B funds, which funds after school and summer school programs.

“It’s still not a done deal; I think I feel more confident today than I did yesterday, but I still don’t feel 100% certain that the Department of Education is going to accept the State of Washington’s signing of the assurance with the provision [that] we reserve the right to our legal protections as well.”

As he later explained in his superintendent report, the Department of Education (DOE) indicated the Title IV-B funds would be released to Washington if the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) accepted certain federal “guardrails.” OSPI did accept the grant and signed off on those guardrails, adding a “reservation of rights” to protect the state’s legal position.

“All indications are that these and other federal funds may not be available in 2026–27, but that is a year away and we will deal with it when we get there,” he added.

Once the DOE signs off on OSPI’s acceptance, the district’s budget will be finalized and submitted, with funds expected starting Sept. 1.