Bellevue School Board approves $20M–$24M spending-reduction plan to shore up district fund balance

The Bellevue School District Board of Directors voted 5-0 on March 13 to approve Superintendent Kelly Aramaki’s spending-reduction plan, a set of measures intended to avert a projected negative year-end fund balance and restore the district’s savings.

The board’s unanimous roll-call vote came after Aramaki and senior staff laid out a multi-month community engagement process and multiple scenarios that would reduce next year’s operating expenditures by an estimated $20 million to $24 million.

District leaders said the cuts respond to declining ending fund balances, the end of federal COVID-era ESSER funding, rising operating costs and limited state revenue. Aramaki described the district as “in a pretty dire budget situation,” citing a multi-year erosion of savings that, without action, would leave the district unable to guarantee payroll and other obligations.

The plan uses a mix of central-office reductions, changes to ESSER-funded positions and school-based staffing adjustments. Superintendent Aramaki told the board the proposal’s components include central-office savings of roughly $6.1 million to $6.8 million, reductions to ESSER-funded investments of about $3.2 million to $3.5 million, and school-based reductions in the range of $10.4 million to $13.8 million, for total projected savings of $20 million to $24 million.

Specifics discussed by staff and directors: - Central office: a cut at the high end of the previously proposed range for cabinet and…