Shelton schools eye $81M budget

The Shelton School District is proposing a $81.8 million budget for the 2024-25 school year that includes $2.9 million in reductions, mostly to staff cuts.

Brenda Trogstad, the district's assistant superintendent of finances and operations, and Superintendent Wyeth Jessee gave a presentation on the proposed budget Tuesday evening to the Shelton School Board. Following a closed executive session, the board also voted unanimously to approve the superintendent's contract through 2027.

Trogstad compared the district's fund balances with those of neighboring districts Aberdeen, Olympia, North Thurston and Tumwater since 2018-2019. With the proposed budget, the Shelton School District is projected to have a fund balance of $3 million at the end of the 2024-25 school year, or 3.8%.

"They were in good shape when we were in good shape previously, but everybody is starting to struggle," Trogstad said. "They're cutting staff, they're doing the RIF (reduction in force) notices, enrollment is down in a lot of districts. Luckily, we're staying pretty steady in keeping these kids."

"Schools across the state are struggling to balance their budgets ... materials and people cost more," Jessee said.

"I do appreciate all the challenges we're looking at and where we're at, especially considering some of the bigger drops with school districts that I know are really suffering with some of the cuts they're having to make that are substantial at this time," said Board Vice Chair Keri Davidson.

The school board is scheduled to adopt the final 2024-25 budget at its Aug. 27 regular meeting. In September and October, the district will review the enrollment numbers and make staffing adjustments, if necessary. The district is projecting 4,150 full-time equivalent students for the 2024-25 school year.

The district anticipates $83,541,014 in revenue for the school year, a $4,352,847 increase from the $79,188,167 from 2023-24. Of that amount, almost $66.2 million comes from the state, $7.3 million from local taxes, $7.2 million from the federal government, $2.2 million from other Mason County school districts to educate their secondary students, and $676,498 from local sources that are not taxes.

Of the proposed $81.8 million in expenditures, 86.5% is on staffing, including classified and certified salaries and employee benefits. That percentage has dropped from 88.8% last school year, Trogstad said.

The budgeted expenditures by activity are 56.71% for instruction, 12.02% for instruction support, 6.71% for central administration, 6.53% for maintenance and operations, 5.89% for the principal's office, 5.17% for pupil transportation, 2.94% for food services, 2.79% for utilities and insurance, 1.13% for other services and 0.11% for public activities.

The proposed budget includes almost $2.9 million in projected reductions for the school year. The largest is the reduction of hourly para educator time at $843,501. The proposed reductions include eliminating the positions of executive director of teaching and learning for a savings of $229,834 and the kindergarten-eighth grade athletic director for a savings of $161,641. The proposed budget also eliminates six full-time certified teaching positions for a savings of $731,172. The district negotiated a new hotspot contract with T-Mobile for a reduction of $96,000 from the previous contract. Improved safety led to a reduction of Labor and Industry rates by $60,000 Trogstad said.

Davidson said that during her nine years on the board, she's learned that "the state's prototypical model that we get funded for is never enough money for the positions that we need in our school district to have a real ideal environment. So we're always looking at limited resources and limited funds ... "

Trogstad agreed.

"Our classified staff is huge in this district," she said. "We have para pros, we have food service people, maintenance and custodians. (The state) only funds 60 FTE (full-time equivalent) for those staff. Our maintenance/custodial department alone is 43.5, so it really doesn't leave us much. We have to find other ways to fund the classified staff."