EDMONDS, Wash. — The Edmonds School District is considering cuts to staffing and programs as it faces an $8.5 million budget shortfall for the 2025-26 school year.
“It’s only going to get worse. Even before the school year started, they were already having issues with class sizes being too big,” said Rachel Hildahl, parent of a kindergarten student.
The school board is now looking at a reduced education plan, which will consider potential cuts.
The district recently sent out a survey to families and staff and got more than 1,100 responses on a wide variety of potential program cuts.
“Our instrumental music, our middle school sports, our student intervention coordinators – those are top of the list of things that our schools need,” said Andi Nofziger-Meadows, president of the Edmonds Education Association.
The district’s $8.5 million deficit is on top of a $25 million shortfall over the past two years.
Nofziger-Meadows puts the blame squarely on state lawmakers.
“The state is bankrupting Edmonds and just about every other school district in the state,” said Nofziger-Meadows. “We’re all on the march to bankruptcy. Some of us will get there in a year or two, others might take three or four years – but we are all teetering on the brink of being insolvent.”
Final estimates for the district’s budget are not expected until June 24.
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