Latest news with #TacomaPublicSchools
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
TPS cuts to be ‘indefinite' unless state changes school funding model, district says
Tacoma Public Schools officials say the district will continue to make staff and program cuts 'indefinitely' in the years to come unless the state changes the way it funds public education. The district is contending with a $30 million budget deficit for the 2025-2026 academic yea, and has started to cut staff positions and eliminate programs in an effort to address the deficit. This year's $30 million deficit is only the latest in years of budget deficits that the district has faced – going back to the 2023-2024 academic year with a $10 million deficit and the 2024-20205 academic year which saw a $40 million deficit. Ultimately, Tacoma Public Schools has ended each academic year with a balanced budget – meaning expenditures do not exceed revenues – which it has achieved by making strategic program and staffing cuts and drawing on the district's now-depleted reserves. The district had $11.1 million in reserves by the end of the 2023-2024 academic year, a pool that's continued to dwindle to zero since then. Rosalind Medina, the district's chief financial officer, said unless the state changes the way it funds public education, Tacoma Public Schools will never have enough money to maintain its current level of offerings to students, faculty and staff. The district has started to make cuts that will affect the student experience, such as the elimination of offerings like elementary counselors and bilingual specialists, and it has no more reserves to draw on to mitigate current and future deficits, Medina said. Tacoma Public Schools has consistently cited insufficient funding from the state and rising costs among reasons for the current and past deficits. Medina said the state's model for funding public education is not sufficient to support the district because it doesn't account for step increases, which are employee pay raises that come with experience. The more time employees stay with the district, the higher salary they earn. The district has high amounts of experienced staff, meaning it has higher employee compensation costs – costs that the state doesn't cover, Medina said. Beginning and top salaries for teachers at Tacoma Public Schools also rank number one out of the top 10 largest school districts in the state and among 12 neighboring districts, Tacoma Public Schools previously reported. 'If the state is never going to fix those things, then they're never going to fix the situation of what we're seeing in school districts,' Medina told The News Tribune. Medina said the district had been heading in the direction of increasing budget deficits for some time – but federal dollars it received during the pandemic via the American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, or ESSER, helped delay the problem by a few years. 'Had COVID not happened, I think we would have hit this point a lot sooner, but COVID masked that problem because we had a disruption in our operations, and so everything looked different – and then we got all of the ESSER money for the federal stabilization,' she said. T.J. Kelly, chief financial officer for the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, said the state has noted that more school districts are contending with financial troubles since the pandemic. Some of them are in that situation because they used temporary COVID relief funds to build new programs that they now want to keep, Kelly said – though Medina said that was not the case for Tacoma Public Schools. 'That doesn't imply that we would fault districts for how they spent the ESSER money,' Kelly told The News Tribune. 'I think a lot of districts spent the ESSER money on what they intended to be temporary programming, but then their community members liked it so much that they're trying to figure out a way to sustain those efforts, and yet they don't have the available resources to do so.' Tacoma Public Schools officials have said that the district has depleted its reserve funds and that financial insolvency is a possibility. They've also said that 'binding conditions' are a possibility – a set of financial benchmarks that state officials provide to districts to help them balance their budgets. Kelly said districts must request binding conditions if they submit a budget for the upcoming school year, a revised budget for the current school year or a financial statement for the prior school year that indicates a negative fund balance. The state of Washington has six districts on binding conditions, of the 295 school districts across the state. Kelly said it's the highest number of districts that have been on binding conditions in at least the last 10 years. 'We've had a lot of unique things happening post-pandemic,' he said. 'You had the sunsetting of the federal ESSER money, you've had enrollment declines, and in a lot of cases, that enrollment hasn't rebounded yet. There are many factors contributing to just the financial circumstance of all districts right now that are easily identified and pointed to.' Binding conditions is the first in a multi-step process of increasing state involvement in a local school district's finances, starting with the setting of financial benchmarks for a district and ending in directly helping to make decisions about the management of a district's budget. If a district cannot address its budget challenges within two years of being on binding conditions, it would move to a state of 'financial oversight' and eventually 'enhanced financial oversight' if necessary, according to the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Under enhanced financial oversight, all of a district's financial decisions would be made by a financial oversight committee made up of school district experts from around the state. If the increased oversight is not enough to help a district with its budget, the process would end in dissolving the district and having it be absorbed by a neighboring district, though that has only happened at one school district in Washington within the last 50 years, according to Kelly. Both Kelly and Medina have said that the conditions that led to the dissolution of the Vader School District, located in Southwestern Washington along the I-5 corridor, were unique. The district had a much smaller tax base than Tacoma does, and it ended up in a position where it could not offer students the full 180 days of instruction that the state requires. Medina said she doesn't foresee Tacoma Public Schools ending up in such a situation, but she did warn that the district will need to see significant changes in the funding it receives from the state for the district to be able to stop making cuts. David Knight is an associate professor of education finance and policy at the University of Washington. Knight agreed that the state's funding model for public education in Washington is unsustainable. He said the only solution to address it would be for the state to identify new revenue streams – a difficult task in a state without an income tax. School funding has long been a point of contention in Washington. The state Supreme Court ruled in favor of plaintiffs in the lawsuit McCleary v. Washington in 2012, which alleged that the state was failing to adequately fund public education. The Supreme Court noted in its response that it was the Legislature's 'paramount duty to make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders, without distinction or preference on account of race, color, caste or sex.' Tacoma Public Schools officials have said that the share of the state budget dedicated to education has declined in the years since the decision on the lawsuit. 'That is part of the reason why we feel the crunch of revenues,' Medina said at the district's May 22 board meeting. 'We're not able to keep up with inflation, we're not able to keep up with the competitive market driven salaries that we offer, and the state is not providing us with revenues in order to do so. We're seeing the effects of that in the current year.' Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos, a Seattle Democrat who is also the chair of the House Education committee, said the structure of education funding in Washington is 'mired in 19th century ideas,' in which available funding dictates the education delivery system and not vice versa. 'I think that there is a point that is made by the local districts that we have not really tackled as a state what will it take to adequately fund the 21st century education system that we all demand for our students and of the system,' Santos told The News Tribune. 'So until we start with that question, as long as we continue to fund with this 19th century model, then yes, we will always have a challenge.' Santos said inflation has been 'the biggest challenge' in recent years for school districts and the state. 'I can appreciate the perspective of local districts,' Santos said. 'There's not going to be a single district that says that the state provides enough funding.' Knight agreed that it's unlikely that Tacoma Public Schools could face dissolution. He said school districts across the state are feeling the impact of insufficient state funding and rising costs, and it's only a matter of time before another lawsuit comes before the state, making the case that the state has not been fulfilling its promise of maintaining public education as its 'paramount duty.' 'At some point, as they make more and more cuts, school districts will have a strong legal case, to bring back to the courts to say that the state legislature is not amply funding education,' Knight told The News Tribune. 'That option is never off the table.'
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
'It's a class war': Hundreds rally over Tacoma Public Schools budget, staff cuts
The Brief Tacoma Public Schools is facing a $30 million budget shortfall, leading to non-renewal of 105 provisional contracts. Critics argue budget cuts unfairly target low-paid workers, while high-paid officials remain unaffected. The district says it's working to reassign displaced employees to other positions within Tacoma Public Schools. TACOMA, Wash. - Hundreds of people came out to the "Support Our Students" rally and marched to the Tacoma Public Schools' Central Administration Building on Thursday. The backstory As Tacoma Public Schools faces a $30 million budget shortfall, the district released a statement on May 16 saying it notified 105 provisional certificated employees that their contracts were not renewed for the 2025-2026 school year. "What we're seeing from Tacoma Public Schools isn't fiscal responsibility, it's a class war," said Connor Griswold, an Education Support Professional (ESP) within the district. Critics at the rally say the district is balancing the budget on the backs of their lowest paid workers and that cuts need to be made at the top, calling out cabinet members making hundreds of thousands of dollars. "ESPs are skipping meals to buy school supplies, teachers are working second jobs instead of doing curriculum management, students are losing bilingual staff because [Tacoma Public Schools] would rather protect six-figure consultants." said Griswold. Rosalind Medina, Chief Financial Officer for Tacoma Public Schools, gave an update on the budget, saying the district is "dangerously" close to getting into binding conditions with OSPI and that these cuts were made to avoid that situation. "We have been making contractive cuts over the last several years. We have run out of the easy stuff to make reductions to," said Medina. Medina quickly apologized for describing the notifications as "easy stuff" but people who spoke out during public comment were not swayed by the update. "Know that many of your staff, like the families we serve, got to get food banks and assistance just to keep the lights on to survive," said Gwen Lewandowski, an Education Support Professional. "If I work three jobs, pay my rent, raise a kid as a single mom and I can figure out my budget, y'all get paid to figure out yours." Tacoma Public Schools says it is working with some displaced workers to fill other positions within the district. The Source Information in this story came from Tacoma Public Schools and original FOX 13 Seattle reporting and interviews. Luxury Seattle hotel sues 'nuisance' building next door Firefighters in western WA train for possibility of 'above average' wildfire season Shawn Kemp lawyers claim bias in Tacoma Mall shooting case as trial nears Federal judge blocks Trump's dismantling of the Department of Education 'Where is Teekah?': Mother speaks out after Tacoma, WA cold case Activist marks 2 weeks in tree to protest logging near Port Angeles Driver arrested after deadly crash in Kent, WA To get the best local news, weather and sports in Seattle for free, sign up for the daily FOX Seattle Newsletter. Download the free FOX LOCAL app for mobile in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store for live Seattle news, top stories, weather updates and more local and national news.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘Nobody wins.' Parents, staff react to deep cuts at Tacoma Public Schools
As Pierce County's largest school district has been implementing a series of cuts to tackle its $30 million budget deficit, teachers, staff and parents have said the cuts will disproportionately affect the district's most vulnerable students and employees. Tacoma Public Schools last week announced that it cut several programs and scores of staff positions, choosing not to renew contracts for 105 provisional employees and implementing changes that 'directly impacted' 118 education-support professionals and 30 office professionals. The district has attributed its looming deficit for the 2025-2026 school year to insufficient funding from the state Legislature — Gov. Bob Ferguson signed into law lawmakers' final $78 billion operating budget on Tuesday. The district has said that staff salaries and benefits account for 85% of the district's general budget and that the state has only covered 65% of those costs. Beginning and top salaries for teachers at Tacoma Public Schools rank number one out of the top 10 school districts in the state and among 12 neighboring districts, Tacoma Public Schools reported. 'These choices are not a reflection of the job our staff does,' the district said of the staff cuts on its website. 'We value them and the incredible work they do, so much so that they are the highest paid teachers among the 10 largest school districts in the state.' Staff, teachers and parents in the district have said that the district cut education-support staff and early-career teachers on provisional contracts before making sufficient cuts to six-figure salaries at the district level. Cuts from the district – which it has said it will continue to implement through June 13 – include the elimination of services like its 'peer inclusion program.' Melissa Roach, a peer-inclusion educator at Stanley Elementary School, said the program was designed to help young students with special needs learn how to be around other students in a classroom setting, with the goal of eventually being able to transition to a general education classroom. 'Education support professional', also known as an ESP, is the umbrella term for employees at the district who have jobs that range from nurses to bus monitors. Several ESPs who have been impacted by the staffing and program cuts are also referred to as 'paraeducators,' staff who help relieve teachers of various classroom tasks by working with students who have special needs in different capacities. Roach, who is also the vice president of the union that represents ESPs, is currently without an assignment for the next academic year given the elimination of her program. She's been 'displaced,' meaning she will join a pool of several other displaced ESPs to be first in line for the next ESP job openings in the 2025-2026 academic year. As the district reorganizes its ESP staff, some are likely to return as ESPs in different positions, Roach said. By her estimates, about 60% of those staff will likely be able to go back to working full time. '[The district] like to tout their giant graduation rates and how well all their kids are doing,' Roach told The News Tribune. 'But that happens because there are supports in place – that they put in place, wonderful programs – that they've decided to take away. Nobody wins.' Jeremy Cragin, a building rep for the Tacoma Education Association, said the cuts also have impacted teachers who are classified as 'provisional certificated staff,' meaning they have a teaching or educational staff associate certificate from the state but have served at the district for less than three years. 'At Jennie Reed Elementary, our entire kindergarten is first- and second-year teachers. They're outstanding teachers, amazing teachers, people that Tacoma Public Schools should want to keep and incentivize to keep,' Cragin told The News Tribune. 'Now they're going to have to go look for work elsewhere, sadly, because they're being cut.' Cragin criticized the district for choosing to make the cuts, saying it should have reduced administrator salaries first. He cited a retreat that several district staff members attended in 2024 that cost the district nearly $9,000 – double the cost that Tacoma Public Schools originally reported to the public. 'It's really eyebrow raising that they would make that choice rather than start trimming off the top,' he said. ESP compensation ranges from as low as about $26 per hour to as high as $54 per hour, according to the union's collective bargaining agreement, depending on the amount of time an employee has been with the district, educational background and position. District officials like Superintendent Josh Garcia have in contrast made above $300,000 per year in the 2023-2024 academic year, according to public data. Tacoma Public Schools spokesperson Kathryn McCarthy said the district has eliminated 69 administrative positions as it has contended with an ongoing budget deficit: 22 positions in 2023, 38 in 2024 and nine in 2025. Exempt staff at the district level also did not receive salary step increases for the current academic year, McCarthy told The News Tribune in a statement. Kari Madden is president of the Tacoma Federation for Education Support Professionals and has worked for the district for 18 years. Madden said she's never seen this level of staff cuts from the district. Madden is a special education program paraeducator at Foss High School and said the loss of so many support staff for special needs students at Tacoma Public Schools comes as many ESPs are noticing higher rates of aggressive behavior. 'Support from paraeducators is crucial in that we already get hurt as it is, and when you are taking away a lot of the student support that's there, I'm worried that other students are going to get hurt,' she told The News Tribune. Jamie Damazio, president of Jennie Reed Elementary School's Parent Teacher Association, said the district's cuts will result in overworked teachers and will exacerbate the existing teacher shortage. 'I am fed up with people so far removed from the actual schools making decisions like they are crossing line items off on a spreadsheet,' she wrote to The News Tribune in an email. 'It's disheartening that every time there are cuts, it always starts with the people who will be impacted the worst.'
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Trump cuts threaten mental health resources for Tacoma school students
After the Trump administration announced cuts to a program that funded mental health resources for students at Tacoma Public Schools, staff say the loss of the funds would be a significant detriment to a student body that contends with higher rates of anxiety, depression and trauma than other students in Washington. Tacoma Public Schools received a grant under the School-Based Mental Health Services Grant Program from the Department of Education in 2022, providing it with $6,066,390 over five years to pay for 36 mental health clinicians to provide resources and care for students. The grant is the result of the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which lawmakers passed in response to growing concerns about student mental health after a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas that year. Pierce County's biggest school district had been using the funds, which it was supposed to receive in roughly $1 million chunks each academic year, to provide around 3,000 students at Tacoma Public Schools with access to mental health care, according to the district. The Department of Education has notified districts that were receiving the money that they will have until Dec. 31 of this year to utilize the funds, meaning the mental health resources will remain in place until then. But TPS won't receive the remaining $2,655,740 it was supposed to receive for 2026 and 2027. The bipartisan legislation from 2022 doled out $1 billion in grants to school districts to address youth mental health. The letter notifying grantees about the cuts stated that 'funding for programs that reflect the prior administration's priorities and policy preferences conflict with those of the current administration' and could 'violate the letter or purpose of federal civil rights law,' EdWeek reported. Laura Allen, director of Whole Child for the district, said the district is exploring other opportunities to fund the resource after the money runs out in December. 'We have this runway to explore alternative sources, so we're actively working on that,' Allen told The News Tribune. 'There's an appeals process, so we're in the process of engaging in that process. We've also alerted our congressional delegation and hope that there's some possible advocacy there. It's the right thing to do for kids, and we aren't giving up.' The program allowed for school staff to identify students who could benefit from additional mental health counseling and recommend them to one of the 36 support staff who are funded by the grant to meet with students in regular counseling sessions or to identify whether they could benefit from other resources, Allen said. Mental health specialists who provided support to Tacoma students came from local organizations like Mary Bridge Children's Hospital's Youth Engagement Services. Ashley Mangum, director for kids mental health in Pierce County for Mary Bridge, said the program provided three specialists who served students at 23 middle and high schools in the district last year and this year has served 468 students across the district so far. Mangum said the resource has been crucial in helping kids with their mental health before issues they're contending with escalate to crisis level. 'Our system is designed to be reactive, to only be able to manage crisis,' she told The News Tribune. 'Not having access to these services is going to prevent our opportunities to intervene earlier for kids.' The potential loss of the program also comes as the city of Tacoma contends with a spike in youth homicides – four among people 18 and under killed since the start of 2025. Mangum and Allen said that highlighted the need for resources like the ones that the grant funded. 'We know our kids aren't without traumas,' Allen said. 'How do we help them navigate that and be able to come be in class and engage in their learning brain and then have this successful future in front of them? It's everything.' Tracie Barnett, a clinical social worker and mental health specialist with Mary Bridge, has worked with hundreds of students across Tacoma Public Schools' middle and high schools as part of the federal grant. Barnett said she's noticing higher rates of anxiety, depression and trauma amongst the students she works with as they contend with the lingering effects of the pandemic, when some were forced to quarantine in toxic households. 'My clients don't even really care about politics. My clients aren't Republican, they aren't Democrat,' Barnett told The News Tribune. 'This is money that the government, all parties agreed that our youth needed and it's devastating to have it taken away when I feel like we're at this peak of a mental health crisis.'
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Beloved Tacoma school crossing guard known for her crazy outfits laid off
As streams of children bounded out of Washington Elementary School in Tacoma's North End on Tuesday, 'Miss Peggy' was there to greet them in the cross walk. For 29 years, 68-year-old Peggy Tonnema has spread joy to kids and parents as the school's vibrant and beloved crossing guard. On Tuesday, she was dressed as Wonder Woman with a long pink wig, red cape, bejeweled pink glasses, glittery blue skirt and hand-puppet gloves as she waved a neon flag and cooed at families crossing the street. Rain or shine, Tonnema always wears wacky and bright outfits when she, twice a day, guides families across the busy intersection. A visit to her costume closet in the school reveals a floor-to-ceiling collection of bright wigs, funny hats, patterned shirts, accessories, boas, gloves, glasses and Halloween costumes. The outfits were donated to her over the decades by parents, students and complete strangers who recognized her on the street. As she stood in the middle of the road Tuesday afternoon, cars slowed to call out to her from their windows. Tonnema said some of the drivers were former students she'd watched grow up and bring their own kids to school. She screams at cars that speed past. She calls out to kids and parents by name, teasing them with her bird hand puppets and reminding them of the late start the following day. Tonnema won't be a crossing guard next school year. Although she works about an hour and a half a day (she also doubles as a school nurse), Tonnema was one of 114 paraeducators who were told their positions would be eliminated in the 2025-2026 school year as the Tacoma Public School District faces a $30 million deficit. Tacoma Public Schools has cited rising costs and insufficient funding from the state as reasons for the cuts. Although she was offered a chance to reapply for her job as an hourly employee, Tonnema said she won't, to stand with the other paraeducators who are being laid off. 'It's not right,' she said. 'I could stay, but I can't. And that makes me sad.' The decision comes with immense grief, for both Tonnema and families who have seen her as a community fixture of joy and support over the years. Tonnema said her outfits have grown more complex over time. She started wearing bright colors, like a bright yellow cap. Then she found some antennae, and the kids begged her to put them all on at once. People began gifting her more items to add to her collection. A 'We Love Miss Peggy' Facebook page documents many of her outfits, which included recent themes for Cinco De Mayo, a Star Wars-themed May the Fourth, May Day, Earth Day and Wacky Wednesday. Tonnema said the kids have a 'Miss Peggy' dress-up day now. When asked how it would feel to hang up her hat, Tonnema said, 'devastated.' According to her termination notice, which she shared with The News Tribune, she was told on May 8 'there would be a change in [her] current position' and her assignment as a 0.2 full-time employee crossing guard 'will conclude at the end of the 2024-2025 school year.' 'Your last authorized workday in this assignment will be Friday, June 20, 2025. After this date, you will be considered displaced and subject to reassignment in accordance with the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the District and the Tacoma Federation of Education Support Professionals Local 461. Your reassignment for the 2025–2026 school year will be contingent on your ability to qualify for, interview and be selected for an available position,' said HR director Steven Deaderick. 'Please know that this displacement decision is not a reflection of your work or contributions. We deeply appreciate your commitment to Tacoma Public Schools and your support of Every Student, Every Day. Your efforts have made a meaningful impact on our students' success.' On Tuesday Tonnema said she wanted to dress as Wonder Woman 'because I wanted to stand for truth, justice and the American way.' 'Our country is based on our children. Our children are going to move away. We have to educate them. We have to teach them properly. And to do that, we have to have staff,' she said. 'The paraeducators are right there on the ground floor making sure that kids get the extra care that they need — and there's plenty of them that need that.' When her now 34-year-old son attended Washington Elementary in 1996, Tonnema said, every kindergarten had a full-time paraeducator in the classroom. She has been involved in the Parent Teacher Association for decades and has seen cuts to school nurses, librarians, music and art. 'We just keep being outraged and quiet. That's over. I can't do it. I can't. They have to let the city know, let the mayor know, let the whole education [system know],' she said. 'It's time to raise a ruckus. That's what I'm going to do.' In February when Tonnema's car was stolen, the community raised more than $10,000 on GoFundMe to help her replace it. Behind a pane of glass in a school cabinet are awards Tonnema has received, like the Safe Kids Child Injury Prevention Award in 2018 and the Traffic Safety Superstars Award in 2006. On the wall by her costume closet are thousands of photographs of Tonnema and kids she's helped over the years, in addition to Christmas cards and other messages from families. 'She's a pillar in the community. It would be very different without her,' said Annie Lindgren, who was walking her first grader and infant across the street Tuesday. 'We turn the corner and we are very excited to see what she's wearing every day. She makes everyone smile and feel important. She knows all the kid's names, she knows the siblings' names.' Lindgren said she lives about six blocks away from the school and thought the district's decision to cut Tonnema's position was 'terrible.' 'We need to figure out a way to keep positions like that for the kids,' she said. 'It's not just keeping us safe, but I think all the paras and everything are really important for our kids and the teachers.' Parent Will Brown said Tonnema is 'way more than a crossing guard,' going out of her way to help support kids and hand them fun things like Monkeyshines. 'The last place we need to be cutting anything from is education,' Brown said. 'It's like, the most obvious investment you can do [for] the future.' Uniquely is a series from The News Tribune that covers the moments, landmarks and personalities that define what makes living in Pierce County so special.
