Budget

A Message from Superintendent Greg Baker

A Message from Superintendent Greg Baker

Dear families, students, staff and community,

As we prepare for a long weekend, I wanted to give you an update on our budget development for the 2025-26 school year.  I know that might seem a long way off, but with the difficult funding information I have been sharing this year, we are striving to keep you informed.

Over the past couple of months, a number of developments have occurred at the state level:

• In December, former Governor Jay Inslee presented his budget proposal for 2025-27. It did not include additional funding for PreK-12 education.
• Governor Bob Ferguson was sworn into office Wednesday and has started to share his budget priorities, though not yet a detailed budget. The only additional funding for PreK-12 education that he has articulated is for free or universal meals for all students in the state.
• Governor Ferguson has shared that while he’s asking other state agencies to cut funding, he’s not asking PreK-12 to make cuts. He is advocating the legislature increase the percentage of state funding that goes to education.
• Our school board and Whatcom County superintendents (see letters to the editor here and here) have written to our legislators sharing the imminent challenges and asking for support for our students.
• The state legislative session began this week.  State representatives and senators will consider legislation for the next three months.  At the end of April, they will then vote bills into law, which go to the governor.
• Our state superintendent just gave an update this morning on the state of schools and answered questions. You can watch the video  (it’s just under an hour).  I encourage you to at least watch the first 24 minutes and then his closing statement (at about the 35-minute mark), where he discusses school finance.

I also encourage you to watch the budget update video I sent out in October if you haven’t already.

Over the next few months, we wait to see what steps our elected officials take regarding budget. Until then, we will continue to plan the best we can for next year.  Unless the legislature and governor make significant improvements to how schools are funded in our state, we will see challenging times ahead, including likely cuts to programs and staffing.  Washington state’s paramount duty is to provide ample education for all children (see article ix of the Washington State Constitution). The state Supreme Court with the McCleary decision reiterated that constitutional duty.

In closing, I hope you each have a restful extended weekend as we observe the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and recognize Treaty Day and the signing of the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott, which established sovereignty and fishing, hunting and gathering rights for local and regional tribal nations.

Thank you for all your support of our students and public education.

Greg Baker

A Message from Superintendent Greg Baker

Dear staff, students, families and community members,

As I shared in a message this fall, our district and hundreds of others across the state are anticipating likely budget challenges as we plan for the 2025-26 school year.

On behalf of our school board, I want to share two important steps taken last week at the board meeting.

• Our school board passed a resolution urging legislators to address PreK-12 funding.
• Our school board sent a letter directly to our state legislators, which includes information about our budget and what changes could help fix some significant issues.

I want to express deep appreciation for the board for taking initiative on behalf of our students, staff, families and district.

Just yesterday, Governor Jay Inslee released his proposed state budget for 2025-27. His proposed budget did not signal any significant new investments for PreK-12 schools, but we are anticipating hearing from Governor-elect Bob Ferguson and the legislature in January.

Again, thank you to our school board for its leadership and thank you all for your continued support of our schools.

Greg Baker

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December 12, 2024

To our State Legislators:

As you return to legislative session, we know that you will be balancing various priorities across the State. We appreciate your work in improving the lives of Washingtonians and for supporting legislation that benefits public school students.

On December 12, 2024, the Bellingham School Board of Directors passed a formal resolution urging our Legislature to fully fund education and address the upcoming budget crisis. Like many other districts across Washington State, Bellingham Public Schools is facing consequential funding challenges as we plan for the 2025-2026 school year and beyond. Although we made significant reductions in the 2023-2024 school year, we are facing cuts of at least the same amount within the next year.

These challenges are not simply numbers on a spreadsheet; they translate to staff who have dedicated their lives to public education and students who come to our schools everyday. From declining youth mental health to increasing class sizes, we are concerned about the negative impacts on the youngest people in our community. They are not only our students, they are also our future leaders, parents, and workforce; in this way, an education budget crisis has long-ranging effects.

Recent budget shortfalls are being driven by several factors, most notable significantly increased costs due to inflation and cost-of-living changes.

In 2017, McCleary legislation was passed to improve the State’s funding model for public education. These investments have been helpful, while also remaining insufficient in meeting student needs. As a result, our District pays for many more staff than the State funds, largely through local levies. At the same time, McCleary legislation reduced the amount that districts can raise through local levies, leaving Bellingham Public Schools with few options as we face this budget crisis.

While enrollment, reduced federal funding, and inflation are impacting many districts, our funding challenges are further exacerbated by two aspects of the State’s public school funding formula: “regionalization” and “experience factor”.

Regionalization was designed to support school districts in high-cost-of-living areas. By offering additional funds for salaries in more expensive areas, regionalization was intended to help attract and retain staff.  Despite having the highest median house value among our neighbors, Bellingham Public Schools’ regionalization factor continues to decline, beginning at 12% and now at 6%. This reduction is causing a loss of nearly $6 million each year. The reason for this decrease is neither transparent nor reflective of the cost-of-living in our region.

In recognition of the value that seasoned educators bring our schools, the experience factor provides additional funding for staff with more experience and education than the State average. However, the State uses out-ofdate, delayed data to calculate the experience factor. Because the experience factor was based solely on data taken in 2017 and 2023, Bellingham did not, and will not under current law, qualify for the 4% experience factor for 10 straight school years (2017-2027). If, however, the experience factor analysis was applied in 2024, Bellingham would qualify for the 2024-25 school year and would have received $3.6 million more in salary funding in that year.

We encourage you to focus your education investments in three areas that will help students across the State: special education, student transportation, and materials, supplies, and operating costs. We also request that the State address the flawed regionalization model to avoid creating further inequities in education. Lastly, we urge the State to use current data to determine funding for our most experienced teachers, whose expertise greatly benefits our students.

Through the Bellingham Promise, our strategic vision, we believe that “all children should be loved”. We ask that you help support and love our students by addressing these urgent educational needs. The time to act is now.

-Bellingham School Board

Published by:

• The Bellingham Herald
• Cascadia Daily News
• The Lynden Tribune

We have a responsibility to ensure that every student in Whatcom County receives the education they deserve.

Despite our ongoing efforts to provide a high-quality education for all students, school districts across the state, including ours, are encountering significant budget challenges.

Our state’s funding has not kept up with the increasing costs of education. Special Education, transportation and facilities maintenance expenses also continue to grow, further straining our budget. School districts have seen unexpected costs for mental health services, school safety and efforts to address learning loss.

As student needs and operational costs continue to rise, the percentage of the state’s general fund budget dedicated to K-12 education has significantly decreased over the past five years. This reduction has forced many districts to make difficult decisions, affecting staffing levels, essential programs and student support services.

To help us meet these challenges, we have each asked our local legislators to act in these ways:

1. Adjust the state funding formula to better reflect the true costs of education, including adequate support for Special Education, transportation, and materials and supplies.
2. Provide targeted funding to help continued pandemic recovery, including resources for mental health support, academic interventions and technology upgrades.
3. Increase state funding to keep pace with inflation.

We appreciate your ongoing support and understanding as we navigate these financial challenges. To learn more, visit www.waschoolfunding.org.

Greg Baker, Bellingham Public Schools; Christopher Granger, Blaine School District; Kristi Dominguez, Ferndale Public Schools; David VanderYacht, Lynden School District; James Everett, Meridian School District; Nick Perigo, Mount Baker School District; Matt Galley, Nooksack Valley School District

A Message from Superintendent Greg Baker

Dear students, staff, families and community,

While we are only in the first two months of the school year, we are already looking ahead and planning for the 2025-26 school year.  I’d like to take a moment and share the current conditions our district is facing alongside most others around the state.

As many of you are aware, nearly every district in our state, including ours, is facing budget challenges for 2025-26.

Due to limited state funding that has not kept pace with inflation, districts will find themselves in a difficult position to make hard decisions to maintain a balanced budget while ensuring schools have the resources necessary to provide high-quality education for all students.

The Washington State Constitution says that “the state’s primary responsibility is to make ample provision for the education of all children.” With that in mind, we have been meeting with local lawmakers to share information about our budget and what changes could help fix our circumstances.

Our state’s funding model is flawed and does not reflect the reality of what we need.  We rely heavily on our local voters to consider levy measures to provide additional revenue to support staff and programs in our district. With rising costs, it’s simply not enough.

While we are grateful that our Bellingham community historically supports our school levies, the state limits how much we can collect. And more importantly, local communities should not need to make up for the basic funding that the state should provide. Again, to emphasize the urgency of this moment, unless Washington state increases its funding, districts across the state will need to make significant changes and budget cuts.

I encourage you to watch a brief video where I explain the current budget context. We have included chapters for jumping to topics.

Additionally, I am including resources that may help you better understand the budget situation. This budget webpage has links to resources, including BPS legislative priorities and the state’s priorities.

I am confident we will get through this tough budget cycle. We remain committed to finding solutions with the state to ensure that every student receives the education they deserve.

Greg Baker

Bellingham Public Schools’ budget is prepared in accordance with the laws and legal requirements of the school district board, Washington state and the federal government. The budget is a document that demonstrates our values and how the school district will direct limited resources to achieve the goals described in The Bellingham Promise, our strategic plan. 

We receive most of our funding from the state and through local levies and bonds. We get additional dollars from grants and the federal government.  

Visit the budget for current and historical budget information and ASB reports. 

Compared to 2019-20, our enrollment is down about 482 students.

When we dig into the reasons why some students have left Bellingham Public Schools, it’s mostly due to interest in homeschooling or moving out of the district. Some have assumed we have “lost” a significant number of students to private schools in the area, but as private schools are not required to report enrollment to the state, this assumption is difficult to verify. Unfortunately, we are also seeing declining birth rates in Whatcom County and across WA State, which will not help our future enrollment.

Our budget challenges are not unique to Bellingham. School districts across our state and the country are facing similar funding challenges.  

School districts, including BPS, are facing reductions for a number of reasons. The most significant reason is that state funding is not keeping pace with inflation and district demands.  

Our state’s funding models and formulas are flawed.  

Like nearly every district in Washington, we rely on levies to provide essential funding for programs not fully funded by our state. Like other school districts in Whatcom County and across the state, we put forth two levies every four years for voters to consider: an operations and technology levy. These replacement levies pay for nearly 25 percent of the cost of educational services that the state does not adequately fund.  

Because the state’s funding has been limited, we rely more and more on our levies to sustain our budget to pay for staff and programs. We are not using levy funds as they were intended for enrichment, rather they help fund “basic education” and daily operations.  

Student enrollment is the key driver for the state funding formula.  We are eligible to receive funding from the state for every student enrolled in our district. Enrollment is a critical factor in determining our revenues and costs.  In recent years, our state, including Bellingham, have experienced low birth rate trends and a slow recovery of enrollment since COVID.  As our enrollment decreases, funding declines.  

We do not know specifically what programs or positions could be affected or reduced. We will rely on our guiding principles and input from our community to help us make tough decisions, as needed.  

We use the adage “bonds are for building.” Funding for any of our new schools (Sehome, Sunnyland, Parkview and Alderwood), fields (Squalicum, Bellingham and Sehome) and our new District Office were all built thanks to supported bonds from 2013, 2018 and 2022. We cannot use bond dollars to pay teacher salaries or other teaching and learning programs. Bond dollars are restricted to construction and remodeling projects. 

School districts are placed into binding conditions when the district’s budgeted expenditures are higher than revenues and savings (fund balance) combined.  When the fund balance is too low cash flow becomes a problem, and they are not able to pay staff and/or regular bills. Bellingham Public Schools is not in binding conditions.

We do not receive an experience factor funds because the state model uses old, outdated data. The state recalculates every three years, instead of every year. Last year, legislation was proposed to change this.  It did not make it through. If up-to-date data was used, we would be receiving $3.6M additional dollars for the 2024-25 school year.

At this point, we believe we need to cut millions of dollars in our budget, which will likely impact our work force as staff make up over 80% of our budget. If we need to reduce full time equivalent (FTE) staff, we will try to do this with attrition when possible, which means not replacing positions when someone retires or leaves. You can see our guiding principles we use when making budget decisions.