MOSES LAKE – The Moses Lake School District is holding a special work study session Thursday to begin discussing the budget for the upcoming school year. 

“The meeting will be to just give a preview of what the final budget will look like as well as how it is constructed,” MLSD Superintendent Carol Lewis said. “The focus will be on our new business manager explaining her budgeting process so that the board understands the process that will be gone through in order to develop the final budget.”  

The meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the MLSD boardroom located at 940 E. Yonezawa Blvd. Lewis said there will also be conversations on what revenues may look like for the upcoming year. With state and federal funding expected to change for a variety of reasons, revenue for MLSD – and other area districts – will be difficult to forecast. Washington has tightened its belt in some ways due to a budget shortfall while the Department of Education is in the process of being significantly reduced in size and federal authorities are examining how funding will work as that process progresses. 

“We will be able to share our expected sources of revenue,” Lewis said. “We will also talk about the potential for disruptions to those revenue sources based on what is going on at the federal level. We just really want our board and our public to understand that we are doing the very best that we can and there are still some unknowns as of now.”  

The meeting will also include high-level discussions on potential expenditures, according to Lewis.  

“It is going to be at a higher level because we don’t have everything finalized quite yet,” she said. 

The final budget for the district is due Aug. 31. Lewis said the board will hear the final budget proposal at the Aug. 21 regular school board meeting.