The Tumwater School District superintendent has included nearly 40 school-level positions and almost 100 hours of paraeducator work time in its 2025-2026 budget cuts to make up for a $7 million deficit.
The school board adopted a resolution Jan. 23 to begin making budgetary cuts at the district office and in support staffing. It included eliminating 27 people from next year's budget and a cost-of-living wage freeze for non-represented and administrative staff for the next school year.
Those cuts will save the district about $2.6 million, leaving the remaining deficit at about $4.5 million.
Superintendent Kevin Bogatin said the sad reality is the district isn't funded for the staffing it currently has, and cutting another $4.5 million will only allow TSD to break even. The district had to borrow more than $7 million from its Capital Projects fund to make ends meet for this school year, a practice Bogatin said is unsustainable.
Bogatin said he recently wrote a letter to the legislative Ways and Means Committee on three bills that would bring additional funding to school districts around the state.
"It is a situation that ultimately has taken some years to get to, but we are committed to doing this and building a positive path forward," he said.
The Reduction in Education Program Plan includes cutting 24 certified staff positions from next year's budget.
At the elementary level, seven classroom teachers and one Highly Capable Program teacher will be cut.
Five middle school teaching positions would be cut. At the high school level, five teaching positions would be cut, as well as one teaching position in the FRESH program, a farm-based education program.
Seven other certified instructional staff positions would be cut, including one counselor, an assistant principal and two athletic directors. The cuts include two teachers in special assignment positions, one in multilingual education and one in technology. A multilingual learner specialist position is also included in the cuts.
Classified and non-represented staff cuts
Three registered behavioral technician positions are included in the cuts, as well as one campus supervisor position. Two high school counseling center positions and two middle school athletics positions are also on the list. Black Lake Elementary and Tumwater Middle School will both lose one office professional position.
Paraeducator hours will be cut to help close the budget gap. Basic education paraeducator hours will be reduced by 57.7 hours, and special education paraeducators by 34 hours.
In addition to these positions, the district has identified one-year only, non-continuing positions that will not be renewed for next school year. In total, they represent about $400,000 in reduced spending. The positions include school psychology interns, speech language pathology assistants, and registered behavior technicians.
Assistant Superintendent Ben Rarick said some of the eliminations are more restructuring than complete cuts. He said the athletic director positions are being reclassified as administrative rather than teaching. He said some of the folks who are in the positions being cut may return in a slightly different role.
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