SEQUIM — Sequim School Board directors approved a spending plan for the upcoming academic year that sheds spending by about $2.5 million.
Following a short recap of a budget draft presented last month and a public hearing that drew no comments, directors on July 15 voted unanimously to approve the administration’s budget that anticipates about $46.9 million in spending and about $47.6 million in revenues for the 2024-25 school year.
The budget accounts for the loss of some COVID 19-era federal dollars and is a more conservative approach to anticipated enrollment and building the district’s general fund.
Superintendent Regan Nickels said the district used May 2024 enrollment numbers as a base to predict student turnout for the fall. The budget anticipates about 2,511 full-time-equivalent (FTE) students — 477 at Greywolf Elementary School, 490 at Helen Haller Elementary, 532 at Sequim Middle School, 732 at Sequim High School, 223 at Olympic Peninsula Academy and Dungeness Virtual School and 57 Running Start students — about 100 FTEs fewer than anticipated in the 2023-24 budget.
The district is projecting a slight increase in enrollment for 2025-26 to 2,533 full-time-equivalent students but a dip to 2,482 for 2026-27 and 2,447 for 2027-2028.
“We don’t see anything that will indicate a shift in the pattern (of enrollment),” she said.
Board directors asked if Nickels thought the district was being “wildly optimistic about revenues and enrollment.”
“I think this budget is much more realistic (than last year’s),” Nickels said.
“We made some hard decisions this spring.”
Sequim school administrators in March (youtube.com/watch?v=1D7h13t0iz0) imposed a hiring freeze, then eliminated 28 full-time staffing positions in May in a move that was projected to save about $2.7 million from the general fund.
“I know that these are real difficult decisions; no one wants to be in this situation,” board director Patrice Johnston said in May.
More budget details
The district is budgeting for about $675,000 in revenues over spending to rebuild its general fund balance to about $2.1 million, or about 5 percent of the overall budget. District policy requires the board strive to have a minimum of 4 percent of the budget in the general fund.
The buildup of general funds doesn’t get the district its goal of 6 percent, Nickels said, “but we’re making headway.”
The 2024-25 draft budget predicts about $43 million in local and state revenues, including about $25.9 million in student FTE-based apportionment from the state along with $5 million in special education funding — and about $3 million in federal funding.
Salary and benefits in the 2024-25 budget will cost the district about $37.2 million ($18.9 million for certificated salaries, $8.4 million for classified staffers and $9.7 million for benefits), and account for about 82 percent of the budgeted expenditures.
The remaining spending, about $7 million, is divided mostly between contractual services ($4.9 million) and supplies and materials ($2.2 million).
The budget also features about $1.5 million in both revenue and expenditures “at capacity.” Nickels explained that the figure allows for districts to accept and spend funds “from any grants that may come in.”
Sequim currently is seeking several grants, including one that would help upgrade its security systems and another to overhaul its tennis courts.
The 2024-25 budget covers the fiscal year Sept. 1, 2024, through Aug. 31, 2025.
Other district action
• In the consent agenda, board directors extended Nickels’ contract through June 30, 2027, with her base salary at $250,913 for the 2024-25 school year and the salary being increased “by the state-determined annual inflation factor, currently the state denominated implicit price deflator (IPD) for each subsequent year of the contract, effective each July 1.”
• Board directors agreed to award a base bid contract of $271,300 to replace the sewer lift station at Helen Haller Elementary School to Jamestown Excavating.
• The board got an overview of the district’s technology services and materials from Director of Technology Beauregard Young, who noted the five-person staff addressed more than 3,400 new “tickets” (requests for assistance) from staff and students between July 1, 2023, and July 1, 2024. More than 1,000 of them were for repairs of student laptops.
Young and Nickels said the district is considering a requirement that student-issued laptops stay on school premises with some exceptions.
“We have staff support for keeping laptops at school,” Nickels said.
Parents who were surveyed about that option were split.
Young also noted a significant deadline for the district: Microsoft is ending its support for devices operating under Windows 10 on Oct. 14, 2025.
“Devices that don’t support Windows 11 will need to be removed from circulation and stop being used due to being unable to remain in compliance with federal, state, and risk management pool cybersecurity guidelines and regulations,” Young noted in his presentation.
The vast majority of Sequim’s computers and other technology will need to be replaced or phased out, he said, including all 456 at Greywolf Elementary, 579 of 690 at Helen Haller Elementary and 507 of 541 staff computers, among others.
“We know this is going to be a significant budget need for next year,” Nickels said.
Young added that the general fund likely would not cover the expense of replacing all devices.
• The district heard from Mike Santos, the district’s director of facilities, who noted that the replacement of the water distribution system at Greywolf Elementary School has been postponed from this summer to summer 2025.
He said those overseeing Sequim’s capital projects saw the cash flow of levy dollars was running low with a number of projects getting bumped up the list for this summer.
• Board directors heard a report about the district’s special education programs. Nickels said Sequim schools now have a record 469 students with Individualized Lesson Programs (IEPs), including 45 students with IEPs who transferred in this past school year. Those students required services from speech assistance to occupational and physical therapy, specialized instruction and more, she said.
• The school district received about $22,000 from a federal lawsuit against Juul Labs, Altria and other companies and individuals involved in the manufacture, distribution and marketing of vaping products. Nickels said the district is developing plans for how to use those funds.
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Michael Dashiell is the editor of the Sequim Gazette of the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which also is composed of other Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News and Forks Forum. Reach him at michael.dashiell@sequimgazette.com.
