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Kent School District budget update: federal funding eases 2025‑26 shortfall but long‑term structural deficits remain
Summary
District finance staff told the board that 2024‑25 closed close to projections and OSPI confirmed federal funds for 2025‑26, improving the short‑term outlook; staff warned of multi‑year deficits driven by enrollment decline, rising labor costs and an unclear new sales‑tax treatment of labor, and reported $7.1M in cuts already identified.
Kent School District finance leaders presented a revised multi‑year forecast at a special board work session, saying closing of the 2024‑25 books and newly confirmed federal funds improved the near‑term position but did not eliminate a structural deficit that grows in later years.
Executive Director of Finance Raul Parangay told the board the district closed 2024‑25 with 23,902 students, 43 fewer than projected, and reported that revenues were roughly 99.6% and expenditures 99.9% of what was budgeted. "Our ending fund balance is about 97.7% of what we projected," he said, noting the unassigned ending fund balance declined by about $7 million.
Parangay said prior one‑time federal ESSER dollars (roughly $90 million from 2021–24) had supported surpluses in earlier years and that OSPI has confirmed the district will receive federal funding for 2025‑26 only, which restores about $6 million in…
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