District Budget
Our approach to developing and communicating the District’s budget is consistent with our Strategic Plan's Building Block 4: Data-Informed, Needs-Based Resource Allocation, developing a “Needs Based, Data Informed” method to responsibly allocate limited District resources.
Highlights: 2025-26 Budget
Enrollment Projections
Enrollment is not only a key driver in public school funding, but one of the primary reasons district budgets across Washington State are stressed. Based on District and state-wide trends, as well as a demographer’s report, enrollment continues to decline. Therefore, we’ve reduced the 2025-26 enrollment projection to follow a conservative approach.
Four-Year Financial Planning Cycle
The District has used the state four-year budget planning tool as a way to prepare for the future here at Northshore. We have sought to understand the impact of the decisions made today on future years in our financial plans. The District’s financial policy calls for a minimum of three percent (3%) in unrestricted reserves in our General Fund. Included in this budget is the four-year financial plan and an explanation of our assumptions and drivers to do this planning work. One major assumption in the four-year forecast is that the district will pass the Educational Program and Operations (EP&O) renewal levy in 2026 for collection starting in calendar year 2027. With this budget we are using assumptions based on past trends and future expectations about those trends to portray the future fund balances that would result if changes were not instituted.
Fund Balance
Fund balance in the General Fund increased in 2024-25 as a result of significant cuts the District made across the system, and through conservative budgeting practices. Fund balance was still below the minimum of three percent (3%) in unrestricted reserves at the end of 2024-25. No significant cuts were made in 2025-26 and the budget reflects a balanced budget with the same revenue planned as expenditures, resulting in no increase or decrease in fund balance for 2025-26. Forecasts through 2028-29 reflect an increase in fund balance if no significant program changes are made and the 2026 Educational Program and Operations (EP&O) renewal levy is approved.
Highlights from Previous Years
2024-25 Highlights
Enrollment Projections
Enrollment is not only a key driver in public school funding, but one of the primary reasons district budgets across Washington State are stressed. Based on District and statewide trends, as well as a demographer's report, enrollment continues to decline. Therefore, we’ve reduced the 2024-25 enrollment projection to follow a conservative approach.
Four-Year Financial Planning Cycle
The District has used the state four-year budget planning tool as a way to prepare for the future here at Northshore. We have sought to understand the impact of the decisions made today on future years in our financial plans. The District’s financial policy calls for a minimum of three percent (3%) in unrestricted reserves in our General Fund. Included in this budget is the four-year financial plan and an explanation of our assumptions and drivers to do this planning work. With this budget we are using assumptions based on past trends and future expectations about those trends to portray the future fund balances that would result if changes were not instituted.
Fund Balance
Due to a decrease in the fund balance, the District made significant cuts across the system in order to balance the budget. For the 2024-25 school year we don't expect the fund balance to increase or decrease but are working to increase the fund balance again for future years.
2023-24 Highlights
Enrollment Projections
Enrollment is not only a key driver in public school funding, but one of the primary reasons district budgets across Washington State are stressed. The 2022-23 enrollment started strong early in the open-enrollment window. This led us to believe that the declining trend had reversed, and we projected a higher enrollment for 2022-23 than actually occurred. This put pressure on that budget as well and this pressure continued into this proposed budget. Therefore, we’ve reduced the 23-24 enrollment projection to a more conservative approach.
Investment in New English Language Arts Curriculum
Last year’s budget included a new “English Language Arts” curriculum (ELA). That budget included more than $5 million for this purpose. The program has been instituted and training of District staff was conducted last summer and into the school year. Implementation of the new curriculum continues which modernizes the approach to this fundamental educational subject. It will be a priority for the District to continue to revise and modernize its instructional materials in future budgets.
Four Year Financial Planning Cycle
The District has used the state four-year budget planning tool as a way to prepare for the future here at Northshore. We have sought to understand the impact of the decisions made today on future years in our financial plans. The District’s financial policy calls for a minimum of three percent (3%) in unrestricted reserves in our General Fund. Included in this budget is the four-year financial plan and an explanation of our assumptions and drivers to do this planning work. An important change is occurring in this regard with this budget. In the past the assumptions were those that would result in continuing to maintain the fund balance policy target described above. With this budget we are using assumptions based on past trends and future expectations about those trends to portray the future fund balances that would result if changes were not instituted.
Fund Balance
As a result of the change in the approach mentioned above, information presented is much different than similar information included in last year’s budget. Again, the assumptions are based on the recent past where costs have risen faster than resources. Left unconstrained this is unsustainable. Each budget cycle will need to address these inherent imbalances in order to retain fiscal solvency in future District finances. As has been stated many times; this is not unique to the Northshore School District.
Healthy Start Times for Adolescent Students
The District has been working to find solutions to a healthy start time for our adolescent students for many years. “Healthy start times” as defined by Board policy start no sooner 8 a.m. and end no later than 4 p.m. for any student. This District’s school schedules now fully comply with the Board’s policy.
2021-22 Highlights
Enrollment Projections
Enrollment is a key driver in school district budgets. It is a primary factor in determining the amount of state funding a district can anticipate. It is also a key in determining the level of in-classroom staffing is appropriate for the various educational needs of our students. As a result, this is one of the most important efforts in developing a school district budget. Enrollment forecasting for the post-pandemic school year is complicated by the disruption and confusion that resulted. One concern, for example is that kindergarten enrollment will be delayed compared to typical years.
For this budget we took a conservative approach to enrollment. Our forecasts anticipate a reduction in student FTE (full-time equivalent, a measure used by the state for funding) of 228 students. While this would only be a reduction of less than .1%, the reduction in state funding would amount to $2.2 million. Actual state funding will be based on actual student enrollment, but we are using the above estimates for planning purposes.
ESSER Grant Funds
As described in the message from the CFO above, the District will receive federal funds from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief program (ESSER). These funds can be expended on qualifying costs until September 30, 2024. The District intends to spread the use of these funds over the multiple years permitted by the federal government to address the needs related to the pandemic and any related learning loss for our students. Special care will be given to provide resources to address any learning loss for those students who are furthest from educational justice.
Districtwide Music Program
For at least the last twenty years a Northshore elementary student who wanted to participate in band or orchestra needed to join this activity before the typical school day. This created challenges for access to all students (equity), transportation complications (preventing a change to healthy start times for the school day) and likely deterred some students from participating.
All elementary music programs will be offered as part of the school day starting in the fall of 2021. The budget impacts are largely related to the purchase of additional instruments (especially initially), and the necessary adjustment to staffing to enable these programs to be integrated into the school day. It is expected that these costs will smooth out over time and could eventually become cost neutral while still providing the expanded access to students.
One-time Investment in New Curriculum
The budget includes $5 million for the purpose of the ELA curriculum adoption. This would be a one-time expenditure and is not included in the subsequent four-year budget plans.
COVID-19 and the Health and Safety of Our Students and Staff
One of the concerns we continue to evaluate is the model of instruction for public schools as we recover from the health pandemic. As we prepare this budget we anticipate returning our students to the classroom full-time. We are unable to know for sure what, if any, effects from the pandemic will carry into the next year. As a result, we continue to budget for those costs that might arise due to the health crisis. This includes the additional of six mental health specialists masks for staff and students, cleaning and sanitation supplies. If these items are not needed in the next budget year, these amounts will go unspent and improve the “bottom-line” of our budget – the fund balance.
Regionalizing Programs
We continue to make progress on regionalizing District programs. Over the years, programs have been created and offered wherever there was space within the different buildings. This has resulted in a significant amount of “shuttling” students from their home school to the school where the programs were able to fit. A result is a negative impact on transportation systems resulting in shuttling students all across the District to get them to the programs they need as well as programs of choice. An important goal of the District has been to keep students closest to their home schools and the neighborhoods they call home. This enables them to make life-long friends and spend less time on District buses. This budget continues this effort which enables us to address another important goal, healthy start times. See more on this topic below.
Financial Highlights
Two years ago our district began using the state four-year budget requirement as a way to plan for the future here at Northshore. As we prepare our spending plans, we seek to understand the impact of our decisions on the future years in our financial plans. The District’s financial policy calls for a minimum of three percent (3%) in unencumbered reserves in our General Fund. Included in this budget is the four-year financial plan and an explanation of our assumptions and drivers to do this planning work. In summary, our assumption is that student enrollment will be flat for each of the four years. In addition, we are assuming no significant changes in the level of support either from the state or locally.
Beginning last year, we anticipated that the pandemic would bring fiscal stress to both the District and to our funding partner, Washington State. As a result we used caution in our spending. The result was a higher than normal fund balance at the end of the 2019-20 fiscal year. We are continuing that same approach for this current fiscal year and anticipate a higher fund balance.
As we described, our financial planning assumption for enrollment provides for a declining enrollment next year and a flat enrollment assumption over the subsequent four years. We do not yet know how the events of this spring (primarily the pandemic) will impact both the local economy and our school enrollment. We believe that a flat enrollment assumption is fiscally conservative. However, we do not want to be caught short of staff should we have enrollment growth in the District. As a result, the budget includes a larger centralized staffing pool for both certificated staff and classified staff. Allocations from the pool can be made as we actually see the enrollments occur at the schools when we resume in the fall.
Healthy Start Times
The District has been working to find solutions to a healthy start time for our adolescent students for many years. A Technical Workgroup and transportation consultants worked to find solutions to the many challenges that have blocked our offering a healthy start time to our secondary students. “Healthy start times” start after 8 a.m. for adolescent students and end no later than 4 p.m. for any student. Rearranging our transportation schedules would not be possible without the regionalization of programs and addressing the impacts of the elementary music program discussed above. Having made significant progress we will begin adjusting school schedules in the fall 2021 resulting in healthier start times for our students. The implementation of this effort will occur over time with full implementation expected in the fall of 2022.
One-to-One Student to Computer Ratio
One of the projects identified in our technology levy initiative was to achieve a “one-to-one” ratio of students to technology devices. The District achieved this accomplishment in early 2020. The Northshore approach to this effort consisted of two elements. The student at school element and the student to home element. In the student to school effort we now have an age appropriate computing device for each Northshore student at their school sites. Teachers and other District staff can use these in a variety of ways, again based on student age, content, etc. In the student to home program, those students who lacked access to computing devices at home to complete homework were provided a “take-home” device if desired.
As a result of the COVID 19 closure of District buildings, many of these computing devices have been deployed to student’s homes in order to improve the quality of remote learning. In addition, the District has partnered with T-Mobile to ensure each student has access to Internet connectivity through a mobile “hot-spot”. While our one-to-one program did not anticipate that the District would provide thousands of “take-home” devices, having this resource available to our students has proven to be an important element in our ability to continue teaching and learning in this global pandemic.
Northshore Virtual Program
We recognize that there are students who thrived working online or who do not yet feel comfortable coming back to in person learning due to COVID-19 and the unpredictable nature of the pandemic. Beginning September 2021, Northshore Virtual Program will support student learning in a 100% online format for any interested student in grades K-12. The program will provide an online learning format for students that is coordinated and taught by Northshore School District teachers.
2020-21 Highlights
Innovation Lab High School
Formerly known as “Canyon Business Park Site 4” or CP4, the Innovation Lab High School is set to open in the fall of 2021. The new high school will help the district manage growing enrollment in the four traditional high schools while offering an option for a different type of high school experience for our students. Innovation Lab will use the Expeditionary Learning model. One of the central features of Expeditionary Learning is the concept of Crew: an advisory and mutual support network that will form the backbone of Innovation Lab High School’s culture. Expeditionary Learning also emphasizes the skills of collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creativity.
Ruby Bridges Elementary School
Another new school opening in the fall of 2020 is the Ruby Bridges Elementary School. Again, the addition of this new school space was made possible with the support of our community through the approval of the bond levy. Principal Cathi Davis was able to watch the construction of the school while guiding the development of the instructional programs that will be available to students in the fall. The school covers 76,000 square feet to accommodate and expected 450 or so students. The budget for the school was $80 million, a typical elementary school budget.
The State’s “K-3” Class Size Initiative
The Washington State legislature implemented an initiative is to reduce class size in kindergarten through 3rd grade to a ratio of 17 students to each “teacher” (in this case, “teacher” includes related certificated teaching staff such as librarians, etc.). Last year our efforts to reduce class size moved from 17.9 per teacher to 17.6. At that level, the state formula resulted in a penalty of about $2 million. We are pleased to announce that the Northshore School District expects to be at the target of 17 students to each teacher in this grade group. As a result, our financial plans do not anticipate any financial penalties for the 2020-21 school year. It is also great to have the lower teacher ratio for the benefit of our students.
COVID 19 and the Health and Safety of our Students and Staff
One of the concerns we continue to evaluate is the model of instruction for public schools during the health pandemic. As we prepare this budget our counties are at phase 2 of the governor’s “Safe Start” plan. Public schools were ordered to close for the balance of the 2019-20 school year last March and we implemented “Northshore Learns” on-line learning curriculum. During this summer we are working with various community partners, including our labor partners, to determine the best options for our students returning to our school buildings this fall. The proposed budget includes and addition of $4.2 million for personal protective equipment (PPE) in anticipation of bringing students back onsite. This includes masks to staff and students, cleaning and sanitation supplies.
Regionalizing Programs
One goal we’ve made progress on in this budget is to regionalize programs. Over the years, programs have been created and offered wherever there was space within the different buildings. This has resulted in a significant amount of “shuttling” students from their home school to the school where the programs were able to fit. A result is a negative impact on transportation services. Our drivers have been shuttling students all across the district to get them to the programs they need as well as programs of choice. An important goal of the District has been to keep students closest to their home schools and the neighborhoods they call home. This enables them to make life-long friends and spend less time on District buses. We are very pleased to be able to offer programs closer to our students homes.
Four Year Financial Planning Cycle
Last year we signaled that our district would be using the new state four-year budget requirement as a way to plan for the future here at Northshore. As we prepare our spending plans, we seek to understand the impact of our decisions on the future years in our financial plans. The District’s financial policy calls for a minimum of three percent (3%) in unencumbered reserves in our General Fund. Included in this budget is the four-year financial plan and an explanation of our assumptions and drivers to do this planning work. In summary, our assumption is that student enrollment will be flat for each of the four years. In addition, we are assuming no significant changes in the level of support either from the state or locally.
Financial Stress Tests
In addition to the required four-year financial plan, we also use this tool to “stress test” the impact on our future finances under different conditions. For example, we are aware that the State of Washington will be under financial stress as a result of the economic impacts from the pandemic. Our four-year model allows us to assess the impacts of changes to the level of state support (among other things).
Fund Balance
As a result of the potential for changes in state level support, we have asked staff to use caution in their expenditure of district funds. Consequently we anticipate the ending fund balance for the end of the 2019-20 fiscal year to be at about $36 million (8.9% of General Fund expenditures). Some of this fund balance will be invested in the items described above (personal protective equipment for example). This is a higher fund balance than the District normally carries into the next budget, but given these uncertain times (both from a health perspective and a financial perspective) we felt it was prudent.
Centralized Staffing Pool
As we described, our financial planning assumption for enrollment provides for a level enrollment over the next four years. We do not yet know how the events of this spring (primarily the pandemic) will impact both the local economy and our school enrollment for other reasons. We believe that a flat enrollment assumption is fiscally conservative. However, we do not want to be caught short of staff should we have enrollment growth in the District. As a result, the budget includes a centralized staffing pool for both certificated staff and classified staff. Allocations from the pool can be made as we actually see the enrollments occur at the schools when we resume in the fall.
Healthy Start Times
Consistent with the regionalization of programs discussed above, the District has been working to find solutions to a healthy start time for our adolescent students. A Technical Workgroup has been meeting for almost a year and working with transportation consultants to find solutions to the many challenges that block our offering a healthy start time to our secondary students. “Healthy start times” are characterized as after 8 am for adolescent students. Rearranging our transportation schedules would not be possible without the regionalization of programs. During the upcoming year we plan to regionalize programs as a first step to adjusting our start times and transportation services in order to enable our high-school students to be able to begin their academic day no earlier than 8 am.
One-to-One Student to Computer Ratio
One of the projects identified in our technology levy initiative was to achieve a “one-to-one” ratio of students to technology devices. The District achieved this accomplishment in early 2020. The Northshore approach to this effort consisted of two elements. The student at school element and the student to home element. In the student to school effort we now have an age appropriate computing device for each Northshore student at their school sites. Teachers and other District staff can use these in a variety of ways, again based on student age, content, etc. In the student to home program, those students who lacked access to computing devices at home to complete homework were provided a “take-home” device if desired.
As a result of the COVID 19 closure of District buildings, many of these computing devices have been deployed to student’s homes in order to improve the quality of remote learning. In addition, the District has partnered with T-Mobile to ensure each student has access to Internet connectivity through a mobile “hot-spot”. While our one-to-one program did not anticipate that the District would provide thousands of “take-home” devices, having this resource available to our students has proven to be an important element in our ability to continue teaching and learning in this global pandemic.
2019-20 Highlights
Implementation of Core 24
This budget implements the state’s new graduation requirement known as "Core 24". Students will be required to have 24 credits to graduate beginning in the 2019-2020 school year. In response to this, and to preserve elective options for our students, we’ve moved from 6 period days in our high schools to 7 class period days. We believe this approach provides the best opportunity to Northshore students to complete the state’s requirements and retain some options for alternatives to the “core 24” courses as well as equity in opportunities. This change resulted in the need to an additional 22 classroom teachers and related costs for a total cost of $5.6 million.
The state’s “K-3” class size initiative
The Washington State legislature recently implemented a full day kindergarten requirement. The Northshore School District moved to full day kindergarten in 2016-17. Another state initiative is to reduce class size in kindergarten through 3rd grade to a ratio of 17 students to each “teacher” (in this case, “teacher” includes related certificated teaching staff such as librarians, etc.). The District’s current kindergarten staffing ratio is 17.9 students to each teacher. In response, Northshore will lower class size to approximately 17.6 to 1 in 2019-2020 and we will seek to achieve the 17 to 1 ratio state target in the 2020-21 school year. The financial impact of not reaching the state goal in this budget is approximately $2 million in forgone state revenue.
Continued growth is anticipated in 2019-2020 and beyond
The District continues to experience growth in our student enrollment resulting in additional resources provided by Washington State. The table below provides expected total student populations for the forecast years. This budget and the related forecast was formulated using these projections. While we continue to anticipate growth in our student population, we haven’t seen the kindergarten enrollment yet this spring that we would have anticipated. As a result, we have reduced the anticipated state resources by the equivalent of 100 students, but have held the budget for the related teachers in a reserve within this budget. Should enrollment result in the need for some or all of these teachers, we will release the necessary funds to enable schools to staff up in time for school to open in the fall.
Curriculum refresh and District Assessments
We are continuing to make investments in updating and refreshing classroom curriculum. Final desicisons have not been made as yet with regard to which curriculums will be included, but at the moment we are examining opportunities for English Language Arts, AP Physics and elementary music. We are also exploring investing in new assessment programs for both math and reading. District staff are investigating options to select the ones that are best for our students, and the budget provides for the needed resources.
Competitive Wages and District Bargaining Agreements
Our District’s excellence is largely attributable to the quality of our staff. In this budget are the resources to continue to compensate our staff, including our excellent teachers, in a fair manner. In partnership with the 11 District bargaining groups representing our staff, we’ve been able to provide for increases to compensation in keeping with neighboring districts while remaining fiscally responsible. We are either just concluding, or soon will be concluding bargaining with each of the employee groups. These conversations have been productive and collaborative.
Elementary and Secondary Counselors and Mental Health Support
The proposed budget provides for elementary counselors in every school. While we introduced additional elementary school counselors in the past school year, we are proposing counselors in each of the District’s elementary schools with this budget. We also enhanced the ratios for staffing of mental health support within the schools.
School Employees Benefit Board (SEBB)
The Washington State Legislature mandated that all school districts participate in the Washington School Employees Benefit Board (SEBB) for health benefits for their employees beginning in January 2020. Along with this mandate is a lower threshold for the number of hours a district employee needs to work in order to qualify for this program. Much of the cost of implementing this program is provided for by the state. The estimate to provide benefits under SEBB for the next school year is $5.1 million.
Canyon Park 4 (CP4)
We have been exploring options to increase high school capacity due to projected enrollment growth. One of the options discussed was the potential for purchasing and converting an existing office/commercial building into more high school classroom space. After reviewing many properties, the Canyon Park Business Park 4 Site (CP4) was identified as the most attractive site due to its location, current status, configuration, and parking availability. The District purchased CP4 in May 2019, and plans to convert the 63,333 square foot building and 5.92 acre site into an excellent educational facility to complement the District’s other high schools.