There are several factors that have contributed to the district’s current budget concerns. These factors combined contribute to the need to make budget reductions to ensure our revenue source aligns with our expenses. 

• Declining enrollment and birth rates. Enrollment has been declining since 2015, when the Alcoa plant idled operations. Birth rates in Chelan County and the city of Wenatchee have also been declining, resulting in smaller kindergarten class sizes. State basic education funding is driven by full-time equivalent enrollment (FTE). As enrollment decreases, so do revenues.
• Staffing levels. Staffing levels need to be realigned to match trends in decreasing enrollment. 
• Decreasing regionalization dollars. The state salary funding formula includes regionalization funding to level the playing field between property-rich and property-poor districts. The state calculates regionalization dollars based on enrollment and property values. Our district’s regionalization dollars have been decreasing by 1% per year. 
• 1 time Federal ESSER (COVID) funds are ending. The district received federal ESSER dollars to support learning during the pandemic. The district used most of these dollars to keep class sizes small and support the unique learning needs of students during the pandemic. However, these funds were only one-time dollars and will be mostly spent out at the end of 2022-23 school year.

The district made budget adjustments in 2018 to balance revenue and expenses. However, since 2019 staffing levels have increased to support the students during the pandemic and enrollment has been on the decline. The district needs to make further reductions to balance revenues with expenditures. 

We spend the majority of our funds on employing 1100 caring staff who work hard to deliver high-quality education to students - teachers, para educators, principals, and the operational staff who support them.

Typically, about 83% of our budget pays for salaries and benefits for our employees who serve over 6,800 students. 

Wenatchee School District also pays benefits such as Medicare and Social Security, pension, health care, and unemployment compensation. As you might expect, the cost of providing benefits to our employees increase each year, just as it does in every other business.Non-personnel costs make up the remainder of the budget and include costs required to keep our school buildings running, such as utilities and custodial services, supplies and materials (from paper and textbooks to cleaning supplies), as well as the cost
of transportation, travel, and equipment.
 

A school district’s budget is made up of five distinct funds; General Fund, Capital Projects Fund, Debt Service Fund, Associated Student Body (ASB), and Transportation. Money from non-general fund accounts cannot be used to pay for staffing. 

About the five funds:

1. General Fund, the operating budget which guides our day-to-day operations and staffing
2. Capital Projects Fund, which covers our long-term school construction and repair needs and cannot be spent on school operations;
3. Debt Service Fund, Which we use to pay the principal and interest on bonds issued to finance school construction and renovation;
4. Associated Student Body Fund (ASB), which accounts for each middle and high school’s extracurricular activities; and
5. Transportation vehicle fund, which is used to buy school buses.

To learn more about how school budgets work, view the Understanding School Finance document.

Local levy dollars are the community's investment in schools. Levies are for learning and make up the difference between state and federal government funding and the actual cost of operating a school district to provide students with a well-rounded education. Local levy funds are the least restrictive of all our funding sources and need to be approved by taxpayer vote every four years. 

The levy allows the district to provide services and support for students, such as counselors, custodians, nurses, support staff, technology, and supplies that the state only partially funds. Levies also fund arts, enrichment, athletics, and extracurricular programs.

The district’s current EP&O levy represents only 9.9% ($13.8M) of the district's total revenues. 

The District is reviewing natural attrition rates based on past data to determine how many staff could leave the system. Additional incentives have been made available to staff for notifying the district early of their retirement. This will aid us in having a more clear picture of the number of retirements this spring. While attrition will help the district’s budget, it will likely not completely address all the challenges. 

The district has taken decisive action to address budget challenges early. The following actions have been taken

• Reduction of three positions at the District Office
• Absorbing 1 elementary teacher position and reassigning another to a building in need
• Freezing all new requests for out-of-state travel not directly related to a student event or competition. 
• Reviewing current openings based on need and funding source
• Reviewing 5-year trends in natural attrition (resignations/retirements)

The District is meeting regularly with classified and certificated union leaders to discuss 22-23 budget and projections for 23-24.

Superintendent Eagle has been providing in-person updates to all schools and departments. A preliminary feedback survey has been made available to staff to share feedback and concerns. 

Additional opportunities for more detailed feedback will be provided to staff in January.

The District has an aggressive timeline to address the budget. We hope to have a clearer picture of any reductions that would need to be made by the end of February.  By maintaining this timeline, we can provide staff with the earliest notice possible about plans for budget reductions. Furthermore, the District will adhere to any contractual obligations with our labor unions.

The superintendent and cabinet team will be working to identify budget reduction scenarios based on the best available information, thinking, and input from staff to put the district back on solid financial footing. The superintendent will make a recommendation on how to make reductions to the school board in February for approval. Ultimately, the board will make decisions on budget reductions.

The district receives state funding for CTE programs based on CTE enrollment only. This funding can only be used for CTE purposes. During our expansion of the CTE program at both the middle school and the high school, we have provided additional offerings for our students as well as created intentional savings in BEA dollars.

Four teacher training days are funded and required days by the state. The remaining two days are funded by local dollars and bargained with our teachers union. 

The differential in cost between the two devices that are our standard educationally managed devices is negligible.  The student iPad with keyboard case at last purchase was $354 and a student Chromebook was $337.  Both devices are slated for refresh on the same timelines of 5-6 years depending on the wear and tear.  Chromebooks physically breakdown and wear down faster than the iPads along with the resale of the Chromebook being less than an iPad.  The overall cost of ownership is about the same, and maybe slightly tilted in the iPads favor.  As far as functionality the touchscreen and the functionality of the iPad it is a better device for flexible options (camera, touch, apps, battery, etc).  

At this time, the district has not considered moving to a 4 day week. There are some districts in our region that are currently using a 4 day week schedule - Waterville does this.  Moving to a model of this nature would require considerable planning time, conversations, and strong support from our community.  Our timeline for making reductions does not allow for those important discussions.