The Tumwater School District Board of Directors on Tuesday adopted the district's 2025-26 budget and the resolution granting district staff authority to spend the amounts listed for each fund.

Financial Services Director Kira Acker told the board the budget is built on a legislative change to the levy lid that increases the district's levy capacity by about $1,700,000. "When you're passing this budget, you're passing the ability for us to spend what the budget is listing," Acker said, adding the board will certify levy collection amounts later this fall.

The budget resolution adopted by the board authorizes staff to spend the figures shown on the fund summary for the coming year. Acker said that if enrollment and expenses track as planned, the district would be able to add $2,300,000 back to its general fund balance this year. "If everything comes to fruition the way we plan . . . we will put $2,300,000 back into our fund balance," she said.

But Acker and Assistant Superintendent Ben Rehrick cautioned the budget's projections depend on the board's later certification of levy collection in the fall. Acker explained the budget process separates expenditure authority from the separate, later step of certifying levy collection. "You're not authorizing the ability to collect our levy funds in this budget process," Acker said; certification of collection typically happens in October or November.

Board members asked how revenues were calculated and Acker pointed to the levy-lid change, showing a voter-approved base amount and the additional capacity created by the recent law. She said the district would receive roughly 52 percent of that new amount in the spring collection cycle. Board members confirmed that if voters do not approve the higher levy collection in the fall, the district would collect about $1.7 million less and the projected $2.3 million addition to fund balance would not materialize.

After discussion the board voted to adopt resolution 12526, the budget adoption resolution. The motion was moved and seconded and the board approved the resolution.

The board and staff emphasized next steps: staff will proceed within the authorized expenditure limits, and the district will return this fall to certify the levy collection amounts required to realize the revenue assumptions in the budget. The board did not change the budget at the meeting; Acker said a budget extension would be required if expenditures were to exceed the authorized amounts.

The board also opened and closed the statutorily required public hearing on the proposed 2025-26 budget before taking the adoption vote. No members of the public spoke during the hearing at the time of the transcript.

The budget resolution and the levy certification are separate legal steps: the board adopted expenditure authority tonight and will act later this fall on the levy certification that determines how much of the new levy capacity the district will actually collect.