Issaquah School District board hears budget update as enrollment dips; monitoring report accepted

The Issaquah School District Board of Directors on June 10 received a budget and monitoring report from district finance staff that outlined a shrinking student population, new state funding changes, and continued structural gaps between expenditures and revenue.

Chief of Finance Operations Martin Tourney and Executive Director of Finance and Budget Mariah Banasic told the board the district expects enrollment to fall by about 300 students (roughly 1.9 percent) for 2025–26, which the presentation said translates to about $4 million in reduced revenue. The board then voted to accept the monitoring report.

The monitoring presentation placed the enrollment loss alongside several legislative changes that affect district finances. Tourney said the state’s adjustments to special-education funding — including a funding multiplier now consolidated to 1.16 and a statutory cap raised to 16 percent — will produce new revenue for the district, and he said that change “kicks out…