Washougal schools to cut 6 to 10 positions

The Washougal School District is preparing to cut between six and 10 positions in an effort to reduce a $1.5 million budget deficit for the 2025-26 school year.

The district is proposing to eliminate one or two administrative positions and five to eight certificated positions, in addition to reducing work hours for certain administrative and support staff members and up to six additional classified positions, according to a document presented to the Washougal school board during its April 8 meeting.

“We have ranges because there are things that are out of our control,” Superintendent Aaron Hansen said. “There are things happening right now, and we don’t know what the impact is going to be on the cost of items that we need. And we’re still waiting for legislators to finish their (budget) process on April 27.”

Hansen said the district has, through its current collective bargaining agreements, a May 15 deadline to inform staff members about their employment status for the 2025-26 school year.

“We’ve been working to communicate with individuals. We are going to continue to do that if they’re impacted,” Hansen said. “We’re feeling pretty good right now about our communication and our work with our labor partners.”

The document states that Hansen has preliminarily identified staff members who intend to resign, take leaves of absence or retire.

“We believe that through attrition, we’re going to realize many of these positions, and then the savings,” he said. “Individuals will be moving around. We need to make reductions to our certified staff and our classified staff, and so individuals may not be in the same positions (as they are this year), but they will be with us.”

The district faces a financial shortfall due to declining enrollment, reduced state apportionment revenue, levy rollback, increased staffing costs, increased materials and supplies costs, and exhaustion of prior relief funds, according to the document.

“The board has determined that general fund cash reserves and contingency funds will be insufficient to permit the district to maintain its existing educational programs and services at substantially the same level for the next school year,” the document states.

The board has determined that a minimum unassigned fund balance of at least 6 percent of expenditures should be budgeted for the 2025-2026 school year.

“Unless corrected, the district’s budget and cash flow analysis indicates an inability to cover the cost of continuing the existing educational program into the 2025-26 school year,” the document states.

Doug Flanagan: 360-735-4669, [email protected]