With local funding in jeopardy, two Mid-Columbia school districts are making plans to assess education in the 2025-26 school year.
Last month, voters in Finley and Kiona-Benton City school districts collectively shot down more than $10 million in local taxes and state matching dollars to fund education.
Ki-Be Superintendent Pete Peterson said at the Feb. 24 school board meeting that they’ll look to cut vacant positions before making staffing adjustments, then make reductions to programs and services.
They’ll consider running a revised amount in either August or November. Ki-Be is also planning community engagement events in the future.
“In the meantime, I think it’s in the best interest of the board and the district that we take a look at our spending and make whatever adjustments we can, financially, to make sure that we make it through to that time, and then with the potential of making sure we’re in a good place regardless of the outcome of an August or November ballot,” he said.
Finley Superintendent Bryan Long couldn’t be reached by Monday to discuss their district’s next steps.
But the school board’s Tuesday night meeting agenda includes possible action for a “Four Day School Week for 2025-2026 School Year” and changes to “Athletics for 2025-2026 School Year.”
Few other details were listed. Washington requires districts to offer at least 180 school days to students as part of basic education.
Local levy dollars make up about 8% of Ki-Be’s budget and 12% of Finley’s.
Both levies failed by slim margins during the Feb. 11 special election.
Ki-Be’s two-year, $4.9 million replacement levy for operations failed by just 50 votes. Meanwhile, Finley’s two-year, $4.5 replacement operations levy failed by 60 votes.
Voter turnout in the school districts was also very low.
In Ki-Be, just 26% of registered voters — about 1,630 of 6,200 — returned their ballots.
Finley saw slightly higher turnout at 30%. Roughly 960 of 3,160 registered voters weighed in.
Finley’s capital levy to pay for technology and safety upgrades also separately failed, although at a narrower 30-vote margin.
Benton County’s final election results were certified on Feb. 21.
The two districts will have one more chance this calendar year to convince voters to pass funding before those revenues run dry in 2026.
Local school districts have struggled in recent years to get voters to support renewing operation levies.
In 2023, Finley and Kennewick school districts both passed levies after experiencing historic double failures the year prior. A year without local support forced Finley to cut several programs. It paused curriculum adoptions and made cuts to several sports teams, among other savings.
Ki-Be experienced a double levy failure in 2020 before passing a measure at a reduced amount in 2021. The failure forced the district to cut $1.3 million from its budget, eliminating several positions and laying off a counselor and administrator, according to previous Herald reporting.
