Clover Park board hears budget snapshot, enrollment outlook and community survey results

The Clover Park School District Board of Directors on Wednesday received an update on the district’s general fund balance, revenue and expenditure trends and preliminary enrollment projections, and heard results from a ThoughtExchange community survey launched in March.

Assistant Superintendent Greg Hart told the board the slides reflected figures “as of the March 2025” reporting period and that the district’s fund-balance pattern repeats year to year because revenues arrive on different schedules. Hart noted spikes in October and April are tied to property-tax collections and a dip in June corresponds with reduced state apportionment payments. He also said the district’s earlier ESSER funding had temporarily boosted the fund balance and that the balance will decline toward more normal levels as ESSER funding winds down.

The district presented revenue and expenditure charts covering three fiscal years. Hart said revenues for the current year were slightly higher than the previous year and that expenditures have risen year to year but remain largely consistent month to month. He identified an increase in January expenditures this year that “wasn’t one thing,” and a staff presenter said it reflected higher costs for special-education contractors and invoices that sometimes arrive in bulk.

The board also reviewed enrollment data and projections. Hart said the district is funded on the annual average full-time-equivalent (FTE) enrollment trend and warned the annual average “remains to be seen” because counts can still fluctuate. He said the district anticipates a slight FTE increase next year as the district continues to climb back from pandemic-era declines, but at the elementary level kindergarten counts remain depressed. "Lower kindergarten count indicates birth rates have fallen since COVID and that trend continues," a presenter said, linking lower kindergarten projections to declining birth rates.

The ThoughtExchange survey, presented by Executive Director Liana Albrecht and staff, was launched in March with the single open-ended question: “As we plan for the next school year, what are the most important things our district needs to think about in order to support all students?” The presenter said the tool is AI-assisted and that the district reported the top three themes and the top three ranked thoughts under each theme. The presentation listed special education, class size and intervention among the top themes; a word cloud highlighted behavior as a frequent term.

Albrecht and other staff told the board participation in this year’s survey was lower than last year: the presentation said about 100 respondents to date, compared with roughly 500 the previous year, and that about 60 respondents identified as staff. Board members raised concerns that the respondent mix—heavily staff—may skew the themes and asked for the underlying survey questions and raw responses. One board member asked for a copy of “the questions that the people filled out” and the “responses to the questions.” The presenter said the survey used a single open-ended prompt and that staff will provide more data and consider additional outreach methods before the district’s May and June budget workshops.

Why it matters: the fund balance, enrollment trend and survey findings feed directly into the district’s budget-development timeline. The presentation noted community budget workshops in May and additional board budget briefings in May and June, ahead of the board’s July regular meeting when it votes on the budget.

Board members asked clarifying questions about the small print in the slides, how expenditures are timed, how “behavior” terms were categorized by the AI, and what the district will do to increase family participation going forward. The presenters said staff will share the survey questions and responses and reassess outreach methods (time of day, mode of contact, platform) to improve family and student participation.

Ending: The board moved on to other reports after the budget and survey discussion; staff said they will continue to refine outreach and return with budget materials at the upcoming workshops.