Olympia School District board approves 2026-27 spending plan

The Olympia School District Board of Directors formally approved the 2026-27 academic year budget with the adoption of Resolution No. 686 last week.

Directors Jess Jess Tourtellotte-Palumbo, Renee Fullerton, Hilary Seidel and Gilbert Lamont supported the resolution. Director Maria Flores dissented at a meeting at the Olympia School District 111 Esther R. Know Building on June 25.

Seidel lauded the budget process, stating instability is not good for children, and right now, the district is unstable. 

“We have a responsibility to our community to budget in a way that creates stability for our kids and for our families and for our educators. … I look forward to hearing the superintendent’s plan for creating a vision of stability that leans into the outcomes,” Seidel sadi. 

Superintendent Patrick Murphy said the spending plan would only get the district through next year. 

“I would hope if we can get this budget approved tonight, then come the summer, and then early fall, that I, working with district leadership and others, would bring a plan for a longer-term fiscal solution than this temporary solution that I'm hoping that the board approves tonight,” said Murphy prior to the vote. 

Budget highlights 

Executive Director of Business and Finance Kate Davis said the main thing about the budget is the resolution is reflective of the expenditure plan for the 2026-27 budget, as state law requires. 

Davis said the goal for the 2026-27 budget is to have an ending fund balance of about $8.4 million or 4.4 percent of expenditures, and then continue to make yearly reductions that would get the district to a 6 percent ending fund balance. 

“Our four-year budget outlook requires cuts in future years to both stay positive for all four years and to create a higher ending fund balance and a stronger score on the OSPI (Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction) fiscal health indicators,” Davis said.

The OSPI fiscal health scores indicate a school district’s ability to meet planned expenditures without depleting fund balance. 

The district aims to obtain a 2.60 score in the 2026-27 school year, and reach 3.00 by 2028-29. Without reductions in 2027, the district’s score is projected to fall from 2.25 to 0.70 in four years. A score of 4.00 is best.

The district’s actual enrollment this year was 8,873 students. The district foresees an enrollment of 8,790 students in 2026-27.

Also, kindergarten enrollment in the district is down 30 percent since 2019-20, as it no longer outpaces births in the district.

In 2019-20, there were 642 district births and 732.1 kindergarten enrollment. Those numbers dropped to 516.8 births and 576 kindergarten enrollment, the most recent data shows.