The Edmonds School Board of Directors during its April 15 meeting reviewed a resolution to reduce staffing for the 2025-2026 school year.

Superintendent Rebecca Miner said the resolution calls for a maximum of 12 certificated teachers.

“This represents a potential high water mark for us,” Miner said. “What we will present to you for a second reading will not exceed this.”

Miner said the resolution does not increase class sizes or change staffing ratios. She explained that the resolution is to align staffing with class enrollment, and that some of the hours proposed to be cut are from partial FTEs – staff who do not fill a full-time spot.

Miner explained using a hypothetical example of 22 students, with 10 of them taking a specific class. The next year, only 1.8 had signed up for that class. The teachers who only have certifications to teach that particular subject will be cut.

“In some cases, it does represent a little bit of enrollment decline in a building, etc., but it’s still that balancing from staffing,” Miner said.

“We have a number, 12, but we’re also talking about people whose careers are to be educators,” said School Board Director Thom Garrard. “I want to recognize the difficulty for those people of being told that they don’t have a job here next year,”.

The April 15 meeting was only a review, and no action was taken. The district is required to deliver a resolution by May 15 per the teachers’s union agreement. A public hearing on the complete district budget is planned for July.

In other business, the board unanimously agreed to forward to the next consent calendar a resolution redirecting selected lease and rental earnings from cellular communication provider agreements at the Meadowdale Playfield site to the general fund.

The diverted funds must be used for nonrecurring costs related to operating school facilities, including maintenance expenses.

District staff have evaluated all funding options and recommend that up to $190,000 be redirected from capital projects to the general fund for the 2025-2026 fiscal year.

Miner said that this kind of transfer happens every year.

President Nancy Katims said that although the amount isn’t much compared to the district’s overall financial crisis, “$190,000 is $190,000.”

The next school board meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 29, at the Educational Services Center, 20420 68th Ave. W., Lynnwood, WA 98036.

You can watch the meeting online by clicking here.

To view the meeting agenda, click here.