Camas schools on verge of balancing ‘25-26 budget

Having just completed one of the largest budget reductions in the Camas School District’s recent history, district leaders say they are on the verge of achieving a balanced 2025-26 budget and bringing the district’s reserve funds back to a more sustainable level. To do so, the district will need to adjust its enrollment expectations downward and come to an agreement with its labor unions that employees will forgo salary bumps. “All of this is based on basically no increase in salaries as we move into next year,” Clint Williams, the district’s interim director of business services, told Camas school board members June 23. “Outcomes in negotiations can change that.” The district is in contract negotiations with the Camas Education Association, the union representing more than 400 Camas educators. The two groups met for seven hours June 24 to exchange counter proposals and work through issues related to wages, special education stipends and substitute teacher pay. “The tone continues to be very positive, but there is always some give and take,” Camas schools Superintendent John Anzalone said. “But things are progressing.” The proposed 2025-26 budget shows a $1.4 million surplus in the general fund in 2025-26, with $129.6 million in revenues and $128.2 million in expenditures. The surplus will help replenish the district’s general fund reserves. The reserves are not only used in the event of an unforeseen expense or emergency but also to cover the district’s normal expenses during months when revenues from the state or from local property taxes have not yet come in. “We’ve been spending down our fund balance, and it gets so low that we can’t sustain it at that level,” Camas school board President Tracey Malone said. “The surplus is all part of our plan to get some money back into the fund balance.” Williams said the $1.4 million will help build the reserves up to 5 percent of the general fund, which is still shy of the board’s 8 percent fund balance target. No enrollment increase The district’s declining enrollment and increasing costs led to a more than $13 million revenue shortfall ahead of the 2025-26 school year. Anzalone said Monday that enrollment forecasts do not show much improvement in the coming years. “Our demographer is not showing any increase in the foreseeable future. Our district will continue to decline in enrollment through at least 2028-29,” Anzalone said. Anzalone said public schools across Washington are all grappling with shrinking enrollment rates. “Public school enrollment in Washington continues to be down about 4 percent,” Anzalone said. Declining birth rates are part of the reason, but families also are increasingly opting for private schools and homeschooling over public schools, he said. “Private school (enrollment) is up about 25 percent, and our biggest competitor is homeschool enrollment, which, in the state of Washington, is up 42 percent,” Anzalone said. The drop in enrollment is most obvious when comparing the number of graduating seniors versus the number of incoming kindergartners, Anzalone added. “We’re scheduled to bring in about 300 or so kindergartners and graduated around 600 (seniors) this year,” Anzalone said. “For many years, Camas was bringing in more students than they were graduating. That’s just not the case now.” Housing prices a factor Camas has become an increasingly unaffordable place to live, Anzalone said, which contributes to shrinking school enrollment. “Median home prices in May went up against 5.2 percent from this time last year. Prices are staggeringly high right now,” Anzalone said, adding that the median home sale price in Camas is currently $852,000. Board member Corey McEnry said it’s no wonder the Camas School District has experienced such a decline in kindergarten and preschool enrollment. “There’s not a lot young families … are going to be able to afford,” McEnry said. The district has long been considered a “destination district” that helped attract families with school-aged children to the area, but Williams said even the district’s good reputation is not enough to prevent declining enrollment rates — and the accompanying decline in per-student revenue from the state. “It’s harder to come to Camas even if we are a destination district,” Williams said. “The low birth rates and higher home values will be a downward force on enrollment for the foreseeable future.” He added that, based on enrollment trends, the only revenue growth the district can expect to see in the coming years will be education funding increases passed by the Legislature. “That’s why it’s important to keep up with our legislative action committee and to, as John says, keep pounding the drum,” Williams said. The district will publish the proposed 2025-26 budget on its website by July 10 and the school board will hold a budget hearing during its Aug. 25 board meeting. Kelly Moyer: 360-735-4674; kelly.moyer@columbian.com

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