SOAP LAKE — While Soap Lake School District officials expect to have the equivalent of 455 students from kindergarten through high school during the 2024-25 school year. The Soap Lake School Board approved the budget at a special meeting July 29. 

That’s a decrease from the 2023-24 average of the equivalent of 467 students. District superintendent Angela Rolfe said district officials wanted to exercise caution, especially since Soap Lake enrollment has declined since the 2021-22 school year. 

“We budgeted conservatively. We budgeted about 20 fewer students than we ended with (in 2023-24),” Rolfe said.   

The budget projects the district will have the equivalent of about 12 Running Start students and 18 in its Open Doors program. Those are funded differently than basic education. District officials expect to have the equivalent of about 36 students in the SLSD transitional kindergarten, which is also funded differently than basic ed. Transitional kindergarten is for children who need extra time before they go to first grade.  

District officials are in negotiations with the Soap Lake Education Association, the union representing teachers. 

“Those negotiations are still ongoing,” Rolfe said.  

Declining enrollment led the school board to declare a financial emergency and eventually approve staff cuts. Two teaching positions were cut and two were not filled, Rolfe said.  

Declining enrollment meant Soap Lake lost state funding, and that was reflected in the district’s ending fund balance. That's what’s left after all expenses are paid. Revenue is projected to be less than expenditures in 2024-25, but the ending fund balance is projected to meet the district’s target for reserves. The budget projection is about $840,500. 

Expenditures for the general fund were projected at about $11.4 million. The general fund pays for most school activities and operations, from staff salaries to cleaning supplies to insurance. Nikkie Maceda of the North Central ESD and the district’s business manager, said all expenditures are in the general fund unless they are required to be accounted for elsewhere. 

State rules now require schools to disclose the amount of money they receive for materials and supplies, and how much they plan to spend. For 2024-25, Soap Lake is projected to spend almost double what they receive in state funding. The district is projected to spend about $1.45 million for supplies and operations and should receive about $788,900. That’s a shortfall of about $664,200. 

The capital projects fund, which pays for improvements or new construction, was budgeted at $5.38 million.  

The transportation vehicle fund was budgeted at $239,055. The TVF can only be used to pay for buses or other vehicles. 

The debt service fund pays for construction bonds or other capital projects. Currently, Soap Lake doesn’t have any of those, so the fund was budgeted at $1,200. What’s left is an interest payment. The Associated Student Body fund was budgeted at about $74,800.