MOSES LAKE – Moses Lake School District Superintendent Carol Lewis discussed plans for the 2025-26 school year levy funds at the May 1 regular school board meeting. The district will only collect a partial levy in the second half of the school year at an estimated $5.9 million om revenue. However, the following school year the district will be able to do a full collection of about $11.9 million.  

“People are saying, ‘Well, gosh, you haven’t decided what we are doing with the levy money.” We actually have because we have made some promises to the community that if they chose to support us with a levy, that we would make some decisions in alignment with what we said we would do,” Lewis said. “That is our absolute intent.”  

Lewis said nothing is finalized; however, there is a general plan until state and federal budgets for public schools are set. She said these funds are all “up to” expenses, where the district is planning on spending up to the amount listed, but the exact amount of funds for each category has not been finalized. That means numbers are expected to be adjusted as actual amounts come in so that the district stays within its budget. 

“There are all kinds of financial changes coming at us left and right,” Lewis said. “I don’t expect that we would spend less than any of these amounts. We haven’t specified really really clearly exactly what we are going to do because again we have been waiting for this budget information to come our way and to be able to make that analysis.”  

Lewis said she is hopeful that a more exact plan will be put in place for the levy funds soon for the following school year. 

“This is what we plan to do in the 2025-26 school year, starting in September,” Lewis said. “We are going to have to shove as much of the expenditure to the end of the school year as possible because we are not going to have all of that money rolling in, in the fall like most other school districts will. So, we have to be really strategic about it.” 

MLSD Director of Public Relations Ryan Shannon said Tuesday that there has been no update or changes on the plan since the board meeting last Thursday. 

Academic support 

The district will allocate up to $1 million to academic support, including paraeducators, teachers and after-school programming such as the Boys and Girls Clubs, Lewis said. She also said this money could be used for communities in schools.  

According to the information put out by the district in regard to the levy, the district had said up to $2 million dollars for academic support and enrichment. However, the district split the funds differently in the most recent presentation to the board, splitting the original academic support and enrichment into three categories. The Elementary specialists will get up to $750,000, secondary course offerings will get up to $750,000 and academic support will get up to $1 million.  

“These are ‘up to’ numbers where we are considering the legislature and everything else that is happening,” Shannon said. “There is some potential wiggle room depending on a bunch of things. These numbers can fluctuate, and things can shift, so we could spend more on certain categories. It all just depends.”  

Athletics and activities 

Lewis said up to $1.4 million will be used to fund athletics and activities, which include beginning to pay coaches and advisors more than the $1 they each received during the 2024-25 school year. The plan echoes what the district has committed to since it began working toward the levy that voters considered earlier this year and approved.  

The coaches offered to take a pay cut to ensure students would have access to activities and athletics despite the budget shortfall and double levy failure that occurred last year.  

“We are doing that analysis to see how much that is going to cost and find out if we need to find even more money to throw into that one,” Lewis said.  

However, MSLD anticipates being able to pay the coaches and advisors a standard wage next school year since the levy passed.  

Elementary specialists 

MLSD has said they will allocate up to $750,000 to elementary specialists, specifically to PE and music specialists.  

“We know PE and music are some areas that are in high need for students, so we very much want to prioritize that,” she said.  

Elementary specialists were not listed as a separate category in the district’s original levy information but were instead included under academic support.  

Maintenance, custodial 

The district plans on spending up to $750,000 for increased day and night custodial staff and to work on some maintenance projects that the district couldn’t work on this year during the budget crisis.  

“We deferred a lot of really important maintenance projects,” Lewis said. “We really know a high, high priority for everyone across the district is to increase our day and night custodians. As just a point of reference, when we add an hour, because we had to decrease our custodial staff by an hour a day. That caused a huge impact for them personally as well as on our school district. That hour, as we roughly calculated, would be around $250,000 to $300,000.” 

There are no changes from the district’s original levy information to the presentation Lewis gave at the board meeting for maintenance and custodial services. 

Supplies 

Lewis said there is up to $1 million allocated for classroom and operational supplies.  

“To be able to allocate more to our buildings would be really nice,” Lewis said. “To be able to make a materials order anywhere in our district would be a nice thing.”  

Lewis said she knows $1 million sounds like a lot of money, however, MLSD has 20 different schools with several different departments in each. She said expenses stack up fast and it isn’t that much money relative to the size of the district.  

The information provided on materials and supplies expenditures with levy funding aligns with MLSD’s plans expressed during the campaign for the new levy. 

Secondary courses  

MLSD plans to spend up to $750,000 on secondary course offering,s including advanced placement classes, specialized music and others.  

“We have already given the green light for Moses Lake High School to add back some AP plans and some specialized music plans, such as jazz choir,” Lewis said. “So, I want to put that out there because those were some of the things that were really really important to people. We are going to make good on that promise.” 

Secondary course offerings were not listed as a separate category in the district’s original levy information but instead included under academic support. 

Safety, security and health 

Up to $500,000 will be allocated for safety, security and health within MLSD.  

“That was an amount that we did not take away,” Lewis said. “That was the one thing that the board and the district really felt was important. We will continue to spend that money on resource officers, security staff and health staff.” 

There is no change on this line item as compared to what the district had committed to during the levy election. 

Technology  

MLSD plans to spend up to $250,000 on technology, including programs and devices and potentially more staff to support the increased technology load. There are no changes from the district’s original levy information to the presentation Lewis gave at the board meeting when it comes to tech.  

“This is for programs that help so many staff,” Lewis said. “Over the course of the year, staff have asked that we bring something back to monitor students while they are on the internet. We eliminated that because it was only necessary when kids take computers home and since they weren’t taking computers home, it wasn’t a necessary thing. It is a helpful tool for our staff, so that is an example that would be high on our list to add back because it would impact all of our students and all of our staff.”  

Lewis also explained that as the district begins to add technology devices back into the district, it is necessary to add more staff to manage that technology.  

“We have to consider that when we add so much technology, how are we going to have the staff to support it?” Lewis said. 

      

Moses Lake School District Superintendent Carol Lewis said that the numbers for the levy for the upcoming school year presented at the most recent board meeting are estimates. She explained that both federal and state funding will play a role in how the funds are officially allocated. The Washington State Legislature just passed a budget at the end of the session; however, it is waiting for Gov. Bob Fergusons approval.