OTHELLO — Othello School District will present the final 2025-2026 fiscal year budget to the Board of Directors for approval on Monday, Aug. 25. Before the vote, members of the public will have an opportunity to make public comments to the board. The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. in the district office boardroom at 1025 S. First Ave. A meeting agenda will be posted no less than 24 hours before the meeting. It will contain a PDF of the final proposed budget.
The OSD Board of Directors were given a preliminary budget presentation on Aug. 11. You can view it here.
2025-2026 Budget Basics
The new fiscal year budget forecasts general fund expenditures of $87,280,076 against net revenue of $84,593,374. The district’s general fund balance, most easily described as money held in reserve for emergencies or unforeseeable circumstances, will fall by $2,686,702 to $11,158,298.
The district’s ending general fund balance has fallen from $19,114,234 in the 2023-2024 fiscal year. The reasons for the decline are complicated, but they include the loss of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds that school districts received from the federal government to offset the costs of operating during the COVID-19 pandemic. Higher operating costs due to inflation, staffing costs, insurance rates, declining enrollment, and other factors have also added to the fiscal burden. Funding from the state has not kept pace.
Aside from the general fund, the district also has funds for the associated student body (ASB), capital projects, debt service, and the transportation vehicle fund. Each of these funds has a substantial balance to carry over from the current fiscal year, but they will all spend more than their revenue provides in 2025-2026.
Cost Cutting Measures
The school district has implemented several cost cutting measures, which they call “right sizing,” to help stem the losses in the coming year. Those actions include the elimination of some teaching and administrative positions and the closure of Desert Oasis High School.
OSD Superintendent Pete Perez said, “We’re trying to match the deficit we’re going to experience and pair that with the reductions that we’ve implemented.” He pointed out additional cost savings measures beyond staffing cuts. The Information Technology department has moved from a building on the Othello High School campus to the district office.
Perez said the district will continue their right-sizing decisions going forward. “I think we’re always trying to be mindful of preserving, certainly, as many people as possible, but also being mindful of the programs and experiences we offer the kids. We don’t want to just be offering a basic experience. We want to make sure we can continue to offer enhanced opportunities for folks,” Perez said.
Enrollment Effect on Budget
Student enrollment has declined slowly but steadily over the past four years, from a peak of 4,425 in 2019-2020 to a projection of 4,234 in the 2025-2026 school year. Part of the decline comes from lower birth rates, which have declined by nearly 100 per year in Adams County since 2009. As an example, this year’s kindergarten class is smaller than average. Kindergarten students starting school this year were born during the COVID-19 pandemic, a time when the county saw a significant dip in births.
Perez said that the enrollment numbers may actually exceed the preliminary projections this year. “We had a number of [kindergarten] families show up on our registration this week. So I’m hoping that number actually goes up a little bit. We’re experiencing what I think every place in Washington and across the country is feeling,” he said.
