Olympia School District reports large improvement from April deficit estimate, adds back support roles

Olympia School District (OSD) Assistant Superintendent Jennifer Priddy reports a $2,599,009 total improvement from the district’s April Deficit Estimate.

OSD is currently operating with a Reduced Educational Plan, adopted last April 17, due to its budget deficit. 

“On April 17, the legislature had not completed the legislative session and so we were projecting at that point, the midpoint between the House and Senate positions in terms of revenue that would be available to us for the upcoming school year,” Priddy explained on the issue that prompted the adoption of a reduced education plan.

The summary of budget improvements since April 2023 shows how much the district is able to work with now.

JOLT Staff photo via Zoom

Priddy added that the legislature finished its work on April 23, and it became apparent that an additional $1,360,361 was available after negotiations.

$2.6 million in improvements to budget

“We immediately invested that into reducing the reductions that had been adopted on April 13. We've [also] reduced the amount that we were reserving for contingency from 3.27% to 3.08% [$396.848]. It was also apparent that our beginning fund balance projections could be improved. So in total $2.6 million of improvements were we were able to make toward the effort to reduce the reductions,” Priddy reported.

The report indicated that the district put $450,000 back into downsizing the reduced education plan.

“It nets an increase of $41,800 in revenue. Also, we have identified $350,000 in additional expenditures that we would transfer to the technology money giving us room in the operating budget,” Priddy added.

Priddy also projected an amount the district will have accumulated to carry into the upcoming year.

“We are now projecting that the revenue that we will receive this year is $1.5 million. That's an aggressive assumption but we want to make sure that we identify as much possible revenue for the beginning fund balance so that we don’t force reductions that are not necessary,” Priddy said.

The certified staffing restorations chart shows the number of positions allocated/restored.

JOLT Staff photo via Zoom

The presentation also revealed that the district was able to hire back/retain a total of 19.1 Full-time Equivalency (FTE) positions due to this recent development. Through budget adjustments, the district was able to:

• Add back K-3 Support for small schools Teacher Librarian contracts
• Restore secondary Classroom Teachers (1% class size increase; not 5% increase)
• Not convert nurse position to Health Room Assistant
• Add Secondary Music staffing for CBA provision
• Keep contracts for Special Education Teachers at 1.0 FTE
• Generate more revenue with Choice Programs’ out-of-district enrollment
• Make multiple small adjustments