'It's painful' | Toppenish Interim Superintendent on $8.9 million shortfall, staffing cuts

TOPPENISH, Wash. — The Toppenish School District had concerning audit reports under the previous superintendent but the latest report from the Washington State Auditor's Office found no issues with the district's handling of its finances.

However, the district is eliminating 48 positions — 24 open and 24 currently staffed — due to a projected $8.9 million budget shortfall for the upcoming school year.

"It's painful to have those conversations and to lay people off, but it's essential to do that to move forward," said Interim Superintendent John Schieche, who took over the position in March. "If the district did nothing, we would not be able to make payroll or pay bills."

Schieche said there's four main factors that have contributed to the shortfall: a grant that fell through and left the district with $5 million less in its reserve fund, increased property taxes leading to an ineligibility for Levy Equalization Adjustment funds and a loss of state funds due to a decrease in enrollment overall and specifically at the district's online school.

According to Schieche, when they went to build the new Early Learning Center, they were about $5 million short of what they needed for construction and decided to take that money out of the reserve fund.

“The district felt that they were going to receive a grant for that $5 million and that didn't come through," Schieche said.

Schieche said it's unclear why the grant fell through at the time, but it's left the current reserve depleted at just $1.35 million. He said in case of emergency, that's only enough to cover district operations for less than a month.

According to Schieche, the increase in property values also resulted in the district becoming ineligible for the Levy Equalization Adjustment funds from the state, which cost the district $1.2 million from the state.

Another $800,000 was reportedly lost due to a big drop in students enrolling in the district's online school.

“Many of those students went with other agencies or didn't sign up at all," Schieche said.

Additionally, Schieche said the district is facing an overall decline in enrollment similar to what other districts are facing across the state, resulting in a loss of $2 million in state funds.

When asked why the district didn't act sooner, Schieche said, "I don't think it became as real as this year, needing to pay for the preschool. You take some of those things away, like just take the declining enrollment for this year away, and the preschool payment away and we would not be in this position.”

The end result is that the district is now having to eliminate a total of 48 positions in order to balance the budget for the upcoming school year.

According to Schieche, 24 of those positions are currently open due to resignations or retirements and the district has decided not to rehire people for those jobs.

The remaining 24 positions are currently filled and the people in those positions will not be able to renew their contracts. Schieche said they'll be able to work until the end of the school year and then be paid for the remainder of their contract.

“We cut three assistant principal positions in the district," Schieche said. "We cut 10 teacher positions moving forward, two graduation specialists, seven classified staff positions, one supervisor.”

Schieche said he believes the district will be able to rise to the challenge and recover from its financial difficulties.

“The district will continue to provide great services to kids; we're just going to have to do it with fewer people," Schieche said.

Schieche said the district's current levy expires in 2025 and they'll have to go to voters to get another one approved. He said they hope by that time, the district will be eligible again for the Levy Equalization Adjustment funding from the state.

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