Longview School Board holds public hearing on 2025–26 budget; adoption set for Aug. 25

The Longview School Board held a public hearing Aug. 11 on the district's preliminary 2025'6 budget and four-year forecast, receiving a detailed presentation from the district's finance director and discussing staffing, special education funding changes, and levy assumptions. The board did not vote to adopt a final budget at the hearing; the board's next regular meeting Aug. 25 is scheduled for final budget action.

Patty, executive director of business services for Longview School District, told the board the 2025'6 general fund budget is being developed on an assumed base of 2,659 student full-time equivalents and an all-program head count of about 6,259 students. "We are budgeting $123,275,000 for 25/26," Patty said, summarizing the district's revenue and expenditure assumptions and noting that roughly 82% of the budget is personnel-related costs.

The presentation highlighted several items that drive the forecast: state inflationary increases set at 2.5% for salaries and supplies, a notable change in special education funding under the prototypical funding model, tentative collective-bargaining agreements that were incorporated into the preliminary figures, and the district's…