State of Shelton schools

The Shelton School District's strengths include improved student attendance, a large drop in disciplinary measures and a drastic increase in English Language Arts scores for third-grade students. A drop in the graduation rate, the elimination of six jobs in the district office, and struggles to cover decreasing state money for basic education are among the weaknesses.

The district's opportunities include The Evergreen State College's Shelton Promise program offering free tuition for up to four years for 2025 and 2026 graduates of Shelton, CHOICE and Cedar high schools. Not retaining novice teachers and managing a fiscal deficit are among the threats.

Those are among the conclusions from the State of the District presentation by Superintendent Wyeth Jessee at the school board meeting Nov. 26 at Mountain View Elementary School.

The district is experiencing ongoing pressure on the general fund due to inflation and restricted funds, Jessee said.

"The state is forcing us into this situation," he said. "This is going on for dozens of districts across the state; this is not unique to the Shelton School District. But as a district, we do have to make the decisions. You still have to operate, again, back on the budget."

The district recently completed its 2024-25 budget of $81,780,787. Jessee said 86.5% of the budget is devoted to staffing, with 13.5% - $11 million - on nonstaff expenses. Most of that is spent on fuel, food, insurance and utilities, he said.

Jessee said three major factors are taking a bite out of school district budgets, including the Shelton School District: a lack of nonrestricted dollars to cover basic education expenses; local levy dollars are shrinking; and increases in costs are outpacing annual revenue.

"We have a lack of nonrestricted dollars," he said. "So the state gives out of that 81,82 million dollars, 44 million are what they call general fund dollars. These are nonrestricted dollars. They expect districts to support their students with 44 million dollars, that's what that is. That doesn't account for special education, homelessness, other title programs, multilingual services that we provide here in the district and also CTE (Career and Technical Education), so a lot of these pathway dollars. CTE is 10% of our budget."

The district receives $7.1 million a year from local levy dollars. But the levy is not covering the financial gaps created by inflation, Jessee said.

Jessee's presentation began with a look at the district's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

The strengths include hiring and retaining effective educators and leaders and focusing on the implementation of a strategic plan. A weakness is a shortage of staff who speak Spanish, Mam and Q'anjob'al. "It really helps us work not only with the kids but families as well," Jessee said.

The opportunities include increased workplace shadowing and internship experiences, strengthening relationships with families, leveraging technology to support continuous improvement efforts, sustaining school leadership teams, and using data to drive decision making. Managing the upkeep and shifting needs of facilities is a threat.

"Things are really tough," Jessee said of creating a balanced budget. "Swings can happen for a number of reasons. The cycle of general funding, financing for schools in my 25 years has gone up and down. We're in one of those cycles where it is tough, but unlike other ones where it is generally announced upfront, about a decrease in general funding, this is where inflationary pressure has taken hold."

The district's measurable wins include an 18% increase the last two years in third-grade students meeting ELA standards. The district is hiring certified staff members in early spring. Jessee said that before he arrived, the district was waiting until August to hire most of its new educators. Another win is the "huge redesign" of the summer school program that includes a writer's workshop model of instruction and a focus on learning standards in reading and writing.

This school year, the district has 4,517 students. It had 4,553 in 2022-23 and 4,537 in 2023-24. "Coming out of COVID it's really been flat," Jessee said.

Attendance dropped slightly at three schools: Evergreen Elementary, from 426 students last school year to 378 this year; Oakland Bay Junior High School from 545 to 532; and Shelton High School from 1,366 to 1,362.

"I don't think it's as simple as shifting boundaries for folks," he said. "There's a number of families that are really geared toward specific schools, they're invested in their community, those shifts in enrollment do happen for us, and then just the location of certain programs."

Jessee said he doesn't envision a large increase in students the next year or so, but noted ground is being broken for several new housing developments.

Student attendance improved from 81.4% in the 2022-23 school year to 84.9% in 2023-24.

"I think our challenge here is it's down to specific students," he said. "About 80 percent of our students come to school almost every day. The other 20 percent miss a significant number of days. We're not talking a few days - we're talking 20-plus days of school."

The number of exclusionary actions - offenses reported to the state - has dropped from 865 in 2022 to 365 in 2023 and 253 in 2024, a decrease of 71% in two years. That figure is "about a normal number for a district our size and need," Jessee said.

In 2022-23, 73.1% of ninth-grade students were on track for high school graduation; it rose the next school year to 75.9%. Jessee said he'd like to reach 80%.

"There's a lot of challenges for us," he said. "We still have a lot of students in ninth grade with D's and F's, and that is a killer for a lot of reasons, not only just not getting the credit, but their own ability to have some self-worth around that."

The graduation rate dropped from 83.9% in 2023 to 80.5% in 2024.

The superintendent said the district is re-examining the district's budget for every line item. During the winter, the district will start the 2025-26 budgeting and staffing process and prepare for summer programming. In the spring, it will plan for program development for the next school year and make final fiscal moves to support increasing the general fund.

"We're looking to avoid a RIF (reduction in force)," Jessee said.