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Vancouver School District warns of continued budget stress as special-education shortfall tops $44 million
Summary
District officials told the board the 2025–26 budget is uncertain pending state action, highlighting long-term underfunding for special education and other non‑salary costs and saying any reductions this year would be far smaller than last year’s cuts.
Vancouver School District officials told the school board on Monday night that the district is waiting for the Legislature to finish its budget before firming up staffing plans for 2025–26 and that long-running underfunding in special education and non‑salary costs has built a multi‑year gap the district is still addressing.
The district’s budget lead, Bridal (staff member), told the board that “about 85% of our budget is salary and benefits,” and that the gap between what the state funds and the district pays has widened over several years. “We may have to make some reductions this year. It's too early to tell but they will not be anywhere near the scale of reductions that we had last year,” Bridal said.
Why it matters: The board was given numbers showing six‑year shortfalls the district attributes to the state funding formula. The presentation said the district has accumulated roughly $44,000,000 of…
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