Pasco School District projects shortfall, braces for nearly $4 million in federal grant cuts

Pasco School District budget staff on Tuesday presented a preliminary 2025–26 spending plan that projects a multimillion‑dollar operating shortfall and accounts for roughly $4 million in federal grant funding the district has been told it likely will not receive.

The finance presentation to the Pasco School District Board of Directors laid out year‑to‑year assumptions, five fund categories and a four‑year projection intended to return the district to stronger reserves through staffing attrition and other adjustments, while preserving services where possible.

Joey Castilla, the district’s director of fiscal services, told the board the district is coping with factors largely outside local control. “This is a puzzle. … we’re grappling with some funding challenges that honestly are just really outside of the control of the local school districts,” Castilla said during the presentation, later adding of the timing of the federal notice: “the carpet’s been pulled out from under us.”

Why it matters: the budget determines how the district staffs schools, maintains facilities and funds programs for 19,000 students. Trustees were shown a baseline general‑fund position that begins FY2025‑26 with an estimated fund balance of $16.2 million and would end the year near $12.2 million under the current plan, with total general‑fund…