2023-24 Budget development

On Tuesday, April 25, 2023, the School Board of Directors unanimously approved the Reduced Educational Program after making some changes to the original proposal.

During discussions the Board changed the Reduced Educational Program resolution from 46.55 certificated teaching FTE to 32.05.  FTE stands for Full-Time Equivalent, so this may affect a different number of individual staff members as some may have contracts that are less than a full 1.0 contract. 

The Board also added an amendment to the resolution allowing the district to decrease fund balance to 2.75 percent. The intent of the use of these funds is to address potentially overloaded classes, reducing class sizes where most needed across the district.

The estimated unassigned ending fund balance for 2023-24 was already projected to be below 4%. The board requested that the unassigned ending fund balance be drawn down to 2.75% for 2023-24, and those funds then be used to add 14.5 certificated teaching FTE to minimize overloaded classrooms where possible. These one-time funds will not offset the $15 million budget deficit.

Certificated teaching FTE:
On Tuesday, April 25, 2023, the School Board changed the original proposed Reduced Educational Plan from 46.55 certificated teaching FTE to 32.05. 

Classified and administrative reductions:
These positions did not change from the original proposal, which can be found here.

Due to the increased social emotional needs of our student’s district wide, we are increasing school counseling services in our elementary schools. This counselor staffing increase is part of the collective bargaining agreement between the district and the Edmonds Education Association. Our school social workers will have the opportunity to continue to work as school counselors within our district. Many of the services provided will be the same as those they have been providing on a district wide basis, however, moving forward these positions will be assigned to a specific school(s) to support. 

SInC positions will be in elementary schools based on a formula that includes enrollment in the school and whether or not it is a Title 1 school. The largest elementary schools will retain a full-time SInC position. The middle schools and high schools will retain their SInC positions.

We want to address some of the concerns of elective course offerings for next school year. With the elimination of enrollment mitigation funds, we are unable to support small class sizes. Schools are provided with a staffing allocation based on enrollment. Elective courses offered are driven by student choice. If there are not enough students signed up for a particular course, the school has to determine if courses can be combined. If not, the school cannot offer the elective at the expense of larger class sizes in other courses. 

The goal has always been to return kindergarten students to their neighborhood school. Woodway Center was a temporary solution to overcrowding at both Sherwood and Westgate. With enrollment projected to be down for the 2023-24 school year, the district has decided to close Woodway Center. 

Woodway Center students entering kindergarten for the 2023-24 school year will return to their neighborhood school of either Sherwood Elementary or Westgate Elementary. Preschool programming currently at Woodway Center will move to Alderwood Early Childhood Center (AECC) located in Lynnwood beginning with the 2023-24 school year.

All Edmonds Preschool programming will be located at the district’s Alderwood Early Childhood Center (AECC) beginning with the 2023-24 school year, as Woodway Center will close at the end of this school year in late June.

Our preschool program will continue to offer inclusive classrooms by combining students who qualify for special education services, students who qualify for tuition support through state funding (ECEAP), and students who attend by paying tuition. In fact, this change in the model will allow us to expand our inclusive preschool to more of our district’s youngest learners.

Certificated Special Education teachers and other Certificated Special Education providers will continue to serve our preschool students
Certificated Special Education teachers will still provide specially-designed instruction in our preschool classrooms as partner teachers, with the lead classified classroom teachers. Our other certificated Special Education providers, which there is no reduction of, include speech and language pathologists, occupational therapists, school psychologists, audiologists, physical therapists, and others, will continue to serve our preschool students at AECC. 

Classified lead teachers 
The classified lead teachers for our preschool programming, which will be part of the district’s Professional Technical employee group, must have, at minimum, an associate’s degree or higher with at least 30 early childhood credits. The preschool teachers will receive training on and implement the Creative Curriculum for Preschool and Teaching Strategies GOLD and all standards of high-quality preschool.

Preschool lead teachers across the state are typically classified employees. This means they have education in early childhood development and practical experiences, but they are not required to have a teaching certificate.  
 

We want to clarify some information regarding the Special Education Intensive Support programs at Sherwood Elementary for the 2023-24 school year.

There will be Intensive Support programming for students at Sherwood Elementary and all students currently in this program will have the opportunity to continue at Sherwood next school year. If at any time the student has a change to their Individualized Education Plan (IEP), the Special Education team, along with the student’s family, will discuss next steps.

All families in our Intensive Support classes have received additional information from our Director of Elementary Special Education.

The two Intensive Social Emotional Skills (ISES) classrooms at Westgate will move to Martha Lake Elementary. 

We are still determining what class sizes will be next year. We have allocated "problem solving" staffing to address some areas and we will continue to evaluate as students enroll (or disenroll) between now and the start of next school year. 

The Edmonds School District and School Directors are committed to working with policymakers to strengthen public education in Washington state. During the 2023 Legislative Session, in alignment with the Washington State School Directors’ Association 2023 Legislative Priorities, our district shared the following priorities:

• Feed students 
  Our district believes providing access to universal free and nutritious school meals will support students and families.
• Meet requirements for Special Education 
  We ask the legislature to fully fund special education to support the needs of all students. 
• Provide resources for ample, equitable and stable education
  In order to provide a basic education to all students, schools must have qualified adults in classrooms and buildings. The Legislature does not fully fund the cost of compensation increases, which are necessary to recruit and retain the most qualified staff.

Read more about the district’s 2023 Legislative Priorities

We recognize the challenges our district faces as we prepare the 2023-24 school year budget. This is a difficult time for public education as we deal with several factors contributing to our budget deficit which include: 

• Declining student enrollment while maintaining current staffing levels
• Enrollment “hold harmless” funds from the state ending
• Federal funding from the pandemic ending
• Salary adjustments based on inflation and contractual commitments, which are not fully funded by the state

The start/end time changes add 28 minutes each week to the high school schedule. By adding this time into the week, we can access all available state funding for Career and Technical Education courses, which helps the overall goal of the district to retain more teachers and class offerings. Elementary and middle school start and end times have been adjusted by ten minutes to accommodate the additional time at the high school.

If a district needs to do a reduction in force of certificated instructional employees it must follow the Revised Code of Washington (RCW) 28A.405.210, which states in part:

“In the event it is determined that there is probable cause or causes that the employment contract of an employee should not be renewed by the district for the next ensuing term such employee shall be notified in writing on or before May 15th preceding the commencement of such term of that determination.”  (Probable cause or causes include an expected budget shortfall.)

The May 15 deadline is prior to the completion of the district’s annual budget and before the district has complete information. The Reduced Educational Program represents a maximum number of certificated staff whose position will be eliminated. As the district receives additional information, including analyzing the impacts of the legislative budget, the district will use that information to determine final staffing allocations. 

All of this information will be used to complete the final budget. The district intends to have a second reading and adoption of the 2023-24 budget on July 11, 2023. RCW 28A.505.060 requires the district’s budget to be filed with their ESD by August 31.