The Longview School District is proposing a $109 million budget and is ready to hear community members’ reactions during Monday’s public hearing.
The school board is set to finalize the budget Aug. 22 during its regularly scheduled meeting.
Despite higher expenses and low enrollment, the district expects to break even using revenue from local levy dollars, general state funds and federal COVID-19 relief funding received through ESSER, or the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund.
“We’re able to present a balanced budget by using those ESSER dollars to stabilize the revenue shortfall that would be coming because of the enrollment drops we’ve seen,” said Patti Bowen, executive director of business services, during a budget presentation last month.
In 2021-22, the state gave stabilization funding to cover the loss of fulltime students enrolled in the district. Bowen said the Longview School District was not eligible for this because the district got federal dollars through ESSER.
“Enrollment is our largest revenue driver,” Bowen said. “Average FTE (full-time enrollment) is what we’re funded on for the full year.”
Most of the district’s funding-per-student comes from the state, according to the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction’s district report card. According to data from the district, Longview schools are reporting some of the lowest enrollment rates since 2010-11.
The district lost about 350 of its roughly 6,400 students between the 2019-20 and 2021-22 school years, according to data from the school district. Since 2010, the only other non-pandemic years when enrollment dipped below 6,300 were 2011-12 and 2012-13.
It’s difficult for the district to identify why students are leaving or whether enrollment will rebound.
