District finance chief: revenues 2% over budget, warns of federal cuts and rising insurance costs

Peninsula School District Chief of Finance and Operations Ashley Murphy told the board on Feb. 25 that the district’s revenues were tracking about 2% above budgeted projections for January 2025, driven largely by higher-than-expected enrollment. "Total revenues are coming in approximately 2% over budgeted," Murphy said.

Murphy cautioned that the district faces several fiscal pressures over the coming year, including uncertainty in federal categorical funding, a projected rise in liability insurance costs and the scheduled loss of the district’s remaining experience factor. "Our federal funding for this year is locked in," Murphy said, "but what we have been working on is what does that mean for next year?" She warned that cuts at the federal level that affect Educational Service Districts (ESDs) or OSPI could cascade to local districts…