WENATCHEE — Interim Superintendent Bill Eagle has outlined several guiding principles and goals the Wenatchee School District will follow as it continues work to address a budget gap.
An ending balance $2.8 million higher than initially projected in the general fund could alleviate some of the cuts the district will make in the coming months. While district staff determine exactly how much they will need to reduce from the budget, one school board member indicated impending cuts could fall in the $7 million range.
“These guiding principles will be used this year and going forward as sort of a framework for thoughts around budgeting,” Eagle said at Tuesday's school board meeting. “As part of our annual budgeting process, these guiding principles can be used from year to year as a framework to ensure that we allocate dollars in line with our priorities in the strategic plan. And also, that we are accountable and transparent in the way that we look at future budget planning.”
The guiding principles for the district include commitments to timeliness, transparency, collaboration and accountability. The budget principles also pledge Wenatchee will follow its currently agreed to collective bargaining agreements and will also employ the “strategic plan core values and priorities when making budgeting decisions."
The goals in the process include using natural attribution to reduce staffing levels whenever possible. This means the district will also evaluate whether positions can be filled internally or left unfilled altogether.
Wenatchee's dedicated budget page indicates resignations and retirements will likely not be enough to close the budget gap.
The district hopes to spread the impact across several levels, and wants to draft a timeline that “lets people know early about potential reductions.”
Eagle said the district will continue to work through the process in discussion with the union leadership.
He said the goals and principles were crafted after discussions with the board's budget subcommittee, union leadership and the district’s cabinet team.
During the meeting, Eagle again noted a decline in student enrollment, projected to drop by nearly 1,000 students between the 2015-2016 school year and the 2023-2024 school year. Eagle said the enrollment for the current year is about 55 full-time equivalent students higher than projected, which he said is “great news.”
Wenatchee also projects a higher-than-budgeted balance in the general fund, one of five the district uses to pay for its $153.8 million operating budget. The fund accounts for 92% of the money ($141.5 million) spent.
“We did some things intentionally early on that have paid off in terms of our general fund balance,” Eagle said.
The district initially budgeted a balance of $16.2 million at the end of the 2022-2023 budget cycle, though it closed with a balance of $19.1 million.
“That $2.8 million is important because our revised reduction plan will continue by seeking to manage a phased reduction in expenses over the next two years in order to adjust our expenses and revenues to our enrollment levels,” Eagle said, adding that the money could help offset future lost revenue.
The district hopes to present a firm amount for the preliminary budget reduction during a budget workshop on Jan. 23. A previously presented timeline shows the district plans to present "budget scenarios" to the board by the end of February, which they could select from.
“I don’t want to undervalue the significance of that $2.8 million, that is going to help us significantly towards what was originally projected to be a $10 million shortfall,” said budget subcommittee member Laura Jaecks. “So that’s pretty significant.”
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