GIG HARBOR, Wash. — The Peninsula School District is trying to prepare for a leaner budget for the next school year.
During the District’s March 23 school board meeting, Chief Financial Officer Ashley Murphy announced that the district will lose $29 million in state funding and although the recently approved levy helps, the school district will have to make around $12 million worth of cuts to help mitigate deficit spending.
Murphy says for the past few years, the state has funded the district based on its pre-pandemic enrollment numbers.
Murphy says although the school district lost students during the pandemic, the additional funding was still necessary at the time, due to the requirements put in place to deal with COVID, such as more teachers for smaller classes.
“The state continued to fund us at those levels because of those requirements,” she explained. “With the loss of those requirements, comes the loss of the funding.”
Now Murphy says the goal is to make cuts now, and not wait until the school year is in full swing when enrollment numbers could impact funding.
“At that point, you’re locked into contracts with staff, and rightfully so, they need to be able to plan on their side, and looking at mid-year cuts to staffing is not beneficial to the school district, our students, our community, or our staff,” Murphy said.
So far, 40 full-time positions have been impacted: fifteen employees in those 40 positions have been laid off, while others have had their hours reduced, and some positions will stay empty after the employee retires.
But Murphy says this could become a common problem for other school districts.
“Ultimately, a lot of school districts are going to be in the same place,” she warned. “They’re going to have to make these decisions regarding the higher staffing that we saw during the pandemic, and what does it look like post-pandemic when those funds are no longer here.”