MLSD to cut about 100 teachers; further cuts coming

MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake School District will start the next school year with about 100 fewer teachers, according to an MLSD press release.

Non-renewal notices are expected to be issued to about 100 provisional teachers, according to the release. A provisional teacher is one who is either in their first three years of teaching in Washington or who has received a low evaluation and meets certain other criteria, according to RCW 28A.405.210. 

According to the Moses Lake Education Association’s contract with the district, the district has until Wednesday to issue notices of non-renewal, MLEA President Heather Whippal said at the Moses Lake School Board meeting last Thursday.

The non-renewal notices are one step of several that the district is taking to resolve an anticipated budget shortfall of about $20 million, according to the statement. Some of those notices may be canceled if other budget cuts allow for teachers to be retained, according to North Central Education Services District staff during a special MLSD Board meeting on Saturday, but such situations leave teachers and staff in limbo waiting for finalized plans to come forward.

The certificated staff reductions are expected to yield savings of about $13 million, the MLSD statement said.

The shortfall is a result of several factors, according to the MLSD statement. 

Local effort assistance from the state totaling $4.2 million will be lost. This is money the state pays to districts with low property values to augment the local levy. Because the levy failed both times it was put forward, Moses Lake School District will not qualify for this type of aid.

Regionalization adjustments for salaries equaling about $2 million. Washington’s education funding offers a little extra pay for teachers and staff in districts deemed to have a higher cost of living, according to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. In the 2023-24 school year, that amounted to a 1.5% increase to salaries, but Moses Lake didn’t qualify for that increase in 2024-25.

State apportionment in the amount of $1.8 million will be lost. The state allocates a certain amount of money per student every year. In 2024-25, both the amount the state allocated and Moses Lake’s enrollment decreased from initial projections this year, leading to lower revenues than anticipated. 

Accounting errors reduced anticipated available funding by $11 million. This is the result of how school districts like MLSD balance their books. A projected amount of revenue is credited toward the district’s balance sheet. That money is not received until afterward and the funding may vary based on enrollment changes or other factors. Once it is received, the projected amount is supposed to be deducted so that only the actual amount is recorded in the district’s balance sheet. However, according to a presentation during Saturday’s special MLSD Board of Directors meeting, the projected amounts for multiple months were not removed, thus the amount of funding on hand was overstated for some time. 

Levy collection in the amount of $4 million was also listed in the press release, but it was initially unclear what the district meant. The Columbia Basin Herald has reached out to the district to request clarification and will provide that information to readers once it is received.

There will be reductions in staffing among administrative and classified staff as well, the MLSD wrote, although the extent of those was not announced. The deadline for reducing classified staff is June 1, the Moses Lake School Board was told at the Thursday meeting.

About 80% of the district’s budget is allocated to staffing, the district wrote in the statement. Additional cuts are anticipated to extracurricular and co-curricular activities which may include the arts and athletics; staff extra duty pay; curriculum adoption; technology upgrades and replacements; maintenance, custodial and grounds projects; school resource officers; community programs; facility usage, career and college readiness programs; vehicle fleet replacements; professional development; travel; and supplies and equipment.

Specific programming cuts are still being identified.

Moses Lake School Board members have scheduled an executive session Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. in the Board Meeting Room at 940 E. Yonezawa Blvd. The public is invited to participate either in person or via livestream. 

However, “parts of a board meeting can be held without the public (and) those portions of the meeting are called executive sessions,” according to information from the Washington State School Directors Association. While the executive session can exclude the public, any action — any vote — must be taken in open session. 

Tuesday’s agenda is available at https://bit.ly/3UDtmFP, public comments may be submitted at https://bit.ly/4ambftU and the meeting will be streamed at https://bit.ly/3WF6IiL.

The next opportunity the district will have to put a levy before voters is February 2025, under state law. Levies generally provide for operational costs such as salaries and supplies while bond funding generally is for infrastructure projects such as new campuses or major renovations. 

Joel Martin may be reached via email at jmartin@columbiabasinherald.com.

    The Moses Lake School Board will have its fourth meeting in less than a week Tuesday evening to address the needed steps to address budget concerns after its operations levy failed twice this year. Staffing issues are a significant concern with about 80% of the district's budget dedicated to paying employees, including teachers.
  

    The slides from this photo forward were the presentation during the May 11, 2024 Moses Lake School Board meeting.