Clover Park School District outlines budget timeline, funding sources and priorities at community workshop

Amy Day, director of financial services for the Clover Park School District, presented an overview of the district's budget development process, revenue sources and spending priorities at a Community Budget Workshop.

Day told attendees that enrollment is the primary driver of school funding and walked through recent trends, revenue mixes and mandated spending obligations that shape the 2025-26 budget development cycle. "Enrollment is the primary driver of our funding," she said.

The district presented a five-year enrollment trend showing a drop in the 2019-20 school year that Day said coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic and has since leveled off. Day said conservative enrollment projections in recent years helped the district avoid major budget shortfalls.

On revenue, Day described three main sources: state funding, federal grants and local tax collections from the voter-approved levy. She said state funding rates are set during the state legislature's session and the district does not yet have finalized funding estimates for the coming year. Federal revenue, she said, primarily comes from competitive and formula grants, including Title I and Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) grants that support the district's military-connected population. Day emphasized Impact Aid and the district's annual October surveys of families that identify military-connected students: "The Impact Aid funding is a direct result of those surveys," she said, urging families to return them.

Local funding is centered on a replacement levy that voters approve every four years; Day said the district ran its last replacement levy in February 2024 and the next is scheduled for February 2028. She listed programs the levy supports, including highly capable services, interventions for struggling learners, class-size maintenance, AP and IB testing, textbooks and library materials, after-school academic programs, school safety staff and counselors, mental health and behavior intervention supports, educational technology, athletics, clubs, and arts programs.

On expenditures, Day provided a summarized breakdown for the prior year: more than $50,000,000 in federal funding (including grants and Impact Aid), a special-education program that spent over $46,000,000, and nearly $10,000,000 on vocational/CTE programs. She said school-level funding is prioritized first (based on individual building enrollment and special needs), with remaining dollars used for district support services such as transportation and operations.

Day also outlined mandated obligations the district must meet, including adherence to collectively bargained employee contracts and funding to satisfy individualized education programs (IEPs) for special-education students. She listed operational requirements such as providing transportation, student meals, and maintaining safe and clean learning environments.

On priorities for community input, Day cited safety and security, mental health services, technology investments, after-school activities and athletics, family and community partnerships, professional development and staff recruitment. She said the district will launch a ThoughtExchange community survey by March to gather public input, do the bulk of school-level budgeting in April, hold follow-up board workshops and aim for adoption of the final budget in July; a follow-up community workshop is planned for May.

After the slide presentation, meeting participants moved to table conversations; an attendee asked for additional elaboration on district operations during the Q&A portion.