Olympia School District ends 2025 with lower fund balance than previous year

Olympia School District closed the 2024-25 school year with an $8,857,455 ending fund balance, or roughly $1.32 million less than last year.

The balance dipped to $8.9 million for 2024-25, which was slightly higher than what the district projected. By comparison, the ending balance was $10,186,316 in the prior school year.

Executive Director of Business and Finance Kate Davis presented the 2024-25 Analysis of Prior Year Financial Records to the Olympia School District Board of Directors at a meeting on Thursday, Dec. 11.

“Our expenditures exceeded our revenue by $1.3 million. This is three out of four years where our expenditures exceeded our revenue,” Davis said. 

According to the report, factors that impacted the district’s overall financial condition included prior cuts that helped maintain expenses, an increase in revenue from an enrollment gain of 16 full-time equivalent students, an additional Transition to Kindergarten class, staff increase of 18.9 full-time equivalent positions, and cost increases due to inflation. 

Expenditures 

Examining expenses by activity, the district allocated the majority of its budget to teaching and teaching support, which accounted for 61.5% and 11.4%, respectively. 

The expenses included classroom and specialist teachers, counselors, librarians, professional development, assessment, curriculum, pupil management and safety, health-related services, and activities and athletics support. 

A total of 16.1% of the expenses were for nutrition services, transportation operations and facilities maintenance.  

School administration expenses amounted to 6.2% of expenditures, with central administration expenses at 4.9%.  

Levy funds accounted for $28,897,000 of 2024-25 revenue. Accounting documents are available on the district's website.