Wenatchee school board hears legislative update as state budget talks enter final month

Sean Fitzgerald, the district’s executive director of business and finance, told the Wenatchee School District School Board on April 1 that the state legislative session was entering its final month and that many proposals important to K–12 funding remained unresolved.

Fitzgerald said revenue forecasts had narrowed recent projections of a state budget shortfall; “recently, in the last couple of weeks, they’ve kinda narrowed it down to a $9,000,000,000 budget shortfall, based on the most recent revenue forecast,” he said, and he warned that “nothing is truly dead and nothing is truly passed and finalized until the budget is approved by both the house and the senate.”

He reviewed bills and topics the district is tracking: a Senate special-education funding bill (identified in the presentation as “52 63”) that would condense the current two-tier funding model, raise funding and remove the existing enrollment cap; proposals to change Materials, Supplies and Operating Costs (MSOC) funding including a senate proposal that was scaled from an initial 10% increase down to about 6% with an annual inflation tie; pupil transportation funding bills that did not progress; and multiple proposals around school bonds, including discussion of lowering the voter threshold to a simple majority and eliminating a 40% validation requirement, which would require a constitutional amendment to reach the ballot.

Fitzgerald also described bills affecting transition-to-kindergarten (TK) programs, noting a bill introduced after his initial presentation (identified as “HB 2012” in the slides) that would backfill a 2024–25 funding shortfall and cap TK enrollment at current 2024–25 levels. He said earlier TK bills had died in committee but new language can still emerge in budget reconciliation.

Other legislative topics Fitzgerald summarized included proposals to raise local levy lids and modify Local Effort Assistance (LEA), clean buildings energy rules that could include exemption language for districts showing financial hardship, and competing house and senate budget proposals with tax changes being discussed. Fitzgerald said the governor’s office had proposed a larger deficit projection and emphasized that the governor had publicly opposed some proposals, including a proposed wealth tax.

Board members asked clarifying questions about whether governor’s office projections differed from legislative forecasts and how potential tax proposals might affect final funding. Fitzgerald said the release of house and senate budgets in the prior week set up a fast-moving reconciliation period before the April 27 deadline when the regular session ends; he warned special sessions could extend the timeline if no budget agreement is reached.

Fitzgerald’s presentation made clear the district is monitoring multiple funding items that could affect special education funding, MSOC increases, transportation operations and bond rules; he said language and funding levels could change in the last weeks of the session.