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Commission reviews academic and financial frameworks; staff warn cuts to enrichment funding threaten sustainability
Summary
Commission staff presented 2024–25 academic and financial performance frameworks: 75% of schools with calculated tiers met or exceeded academic standards, but only 20% met sustainability measures. Staff warned that state cuts to enrichment funding and reduced philanthropic support threaten many charter schools’ budgets.
Commission staff presented the commission’s 2024–25 academic and financial performance frameworks and highlighted a split picture: most schools met academic expectations, but many lack long‑term financial sustainability.
Jess Sabin Barton, chief accountability officer (speaker 13), told commissioners that 12 of the commission’s 15 authorized schools had overall academic tiers calculated for 2024–25 and that 75% of those met or exceeded commission standards. Among notable outcomes, Rainier Prep exceeded standards across all indicators and Pinnacles Prep improved one full tier after targeted interventions. Jess cautioned that several newly opened schools and those in early grade buildouts (for example, Impact Black River and Rooted School Vancouver) do not yet have full testing cohorts, which limits some comparisons.
On finance, the presentation showed stronger near‑term results (current ratios and some cash‑on‑hand metrics) but substantial concerns on sustainability. "Only 20% of schools met the commission standards for all sustainability measures in fiscal year 2025," Jess said, attributing much of the problem to changes in the timing and availability of state enrichment funding and shifting philanthropic support. Staff noted that some schools had built operating plans around expected state enrichment funds that were not distributed on the historical schedule and that the legislature cut the enrichment funding for fiscal year 2027 entirely.
Commissioners asked for more timely data. Jess and other directors of technical assistance said they will work to incorporate interim assessment data into ongoing monitoring so that intervention can be timelier than the current year‑lagged WSIF (Washington School Improvement Framework) and state testing cycle.
Carol Lowe, CEO (speaker 20), and Dominique Mays (speaker 14), business manager, described operational and interagency work to close out fiscal year '26 and prepare budgets for FY27; they said quarterly financial reporting and close collaboration with OSPI are ongoing priorities. Staff warned that some smaller schools may need to delay planned infrastructure or staffing changes to cope with the funding gap.
The commission will continue to track these indicators monthly through the finance committee and said it will consider adding more interim data checkpoints to identify risks earlier.
