MVSD Superintendent Tom Venable said the district budget for 2025-26 school year will include budget cuts. The cuts come despite an increase in state funding for education by more than $1 billion.
Gov. Bob Ferguson signed a biennial budget on Tuesday that includes an additional $750 million in funding for special education, $213 million for materials, supplies, and operating costs, and $200 million in assistance to support students in low-income school districts, but the increases don’t address areas where MVSD is lacking.
“The state fell short of its paramout duty, from my perspective, providing inadequate funding,” Venable told the school board May 15. He said 70% to 80% of school districts are in “cautionary status” financially, including MVSD.
The budget for the next school year will be ready for the school board’s review during their meeting on July 31, said Venable.
Venable criticized the state legislature for failing to pay adequate cost of living increases for teachers and classified staff, which he estimated would be 1.2% in the state’s biennium budget. He noted that the Methow Valley passed a levy that is higher than the district can collect due to a cap imposed by the state.
“Our community has defined the type of education they want for our children. We worked to build that out and provide that, ensuring they have as many pathways toward graduation and beyond [as] possible, and we have a community that has supported our levies at a level we can’t even collect. They’ve authorized us to do so and yet that lid remains,” said Venable.
Boo Schneider, who was selected by the school board in January following the resignation of long time school board member Gary Marchbank, called the situation “mind-boggling.”
“It’s appalling to me that our state legislature, who has in our Constitution the strongest language of all 50 states, that it is the paramount duty to provide education for all students everywhere and that lawsuit went on for ages, the McCleary vs. Washington State, and it was finally achieved in 2018, and now here we are receiving money that is less than when that lawsuit began,” she said.
State legislators have actually allocated considerably more money for education since the McCleary decision. State spending on education has increased by more than $18 billion over the past 12 years. The Washington Supreme Court ruled the legislature was in compliance with the McCleary decision as of 2018.
This biennium, which runs 2025-27, state legislators allocated $33.6 billion for public education, the largest component of the $78.5 billion state operating budget and a 7% increase over the last biennium. The increases came while other areas of the budget saw $2.7 billion in cuts and $4.3 billion in new taxes over the next two years to cover a $15 billion shortfall over the next four years .
Schneider is running for election this fall to retain her school board seat.
Venable pointed to grants, local levies, and the Public School Funding Alliance as additional funding sources but sympathized with Schneider’s concern.
“The question that is beginning to emerge, at least among my colleagues- locally, regionally and statewide- is what is it going to take? Is it going to take another McCleary court case to prompt the legislature to act upon their paramount duty to amply fund basic education? Because we’re not seeing it occur. What I’m anticipating falls short, and that’s an understatement.”
Venable said the first cuts will come from attrition- teachers and classified staff who are retiring or resigning. He said his next priority is to make cuts as far from classrooms as possible.
Classified staff and administrators make up forty-one percent of public school employees in Washington State.
Managing the State Budget for Education
Venable noted to the school board on May 15 that the percentage of spending on education fell from 52% to 43.7% of the overall operating budget, the lowest percentage since the McCleary decision by the Washington Supreme Court in 2012.
Public school students comprise 13.3% of the state’s total population. Enrollment in the state’s public schools is below 2019-2020 levels. During this time period, enrollment in private schools has increased by 10% and homeschooled students in Washington have increased by 32.5%.
MVSD has bucked the trend and has about 775 students enrolled, with fluctuations, an increase from 670 students in 2020-21 school year.
Venable said he and incoming superintendent Grant Storey have been meeting with representatives from the teacher’s union. The district has two open contracts currently- one with the teacher’s union and one with classified staff.
“[It] makes it difficult when you’re sitting at the table, because you’re sitting at the table with people who deserve to be fairly and adequately compensated,” said Venable.
Venable said the initial influx of billions of dollars in increased funding for education following the McCleary decision went to salaries, which Venable said was needed to play catch up.
“Our teachers at the top of the salary schedule are not at $77,000. Our teachers in the Methow Valley are closer to about $100,000. Teachers west of the Cascades are closer to $130,000,” he said.
Falling Test Scores
Across the state, scores in reading, math and science have declined while the state’s per pupil expenditure has increased. According to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, MVSD’s per pupil expenditure last school year was $18,662. More than a quarter of students did not attend 90% of school days. Only 51.7% of students were deemed ready for college level English, 39.6% were prepared for college level math, and 56.2% were prepared for college level science.
Statewide, between 2013 and 2024, fourth and eighth grade students saw significant declines in math and English proficiency.
Rise in Insurance Premiums
While salaries are the largest portion of expenditures, MVSD’s largest single line item is insurance, which has risen by 78% over the last two years and amounts to $511,000 this school year. The district negotiated paying it in installments to maintain positive cash flow. Venable said they will not know their insurance rate for next school year until August.
Venable said MVSD uses United Schools Insurance Program, which bargains with 29 insurance providers on behalf of 155 small and rural school districts in Washington.
MVSD Undergoing an Audit
Venable updated the school board on an audit of MVSD by the Washington State Auditor’s Office.
“We’re doing our best to provide them with the information they are requesting,” said Venable. “They will find things and provide recommendations. In fact, that’s what we pay them to do that make us better. That is the goal.”
“While I’d love to think that we’re perfect and that our documentation is impeccable, there is a lot of paperwork that is associated with operating a school district and inevitably, there are things that emerge, and they dig pretty deeply. They will find things and it will make us better,” said Venable. “We will learn from that process.”
