Rainier superintendent addresses school funding as board details reduction in force

Rainier School District Superintendent Bryon Bahr addressed the district’s financial challenges in a presentation titled “School Funding in Washington State” at the Rainier School Board meeting on Wednesday, April 23.

The presentation came after the board of directors detailed the reduction in force previously approved on March 19. Known as Reduction in Forces Resolution 299, the resolution authorized the district to eliminate positions due to budget cuts, enrollment changes and other financial constraints.

As part of the RIF, four positions will not be returning next year, including two classified paraprofessional positions and two Rainer Education Association certificated staff positions.

According to the April 23 board meeting agenda, the two classified paraprofessional positions were “completed through attrition.”
Superintendent Bahr confirmed to the Nisqually Valley News that both individuals left voluntarily.

One certificated staff member position was held by a “retire-rehire,” which generally signifies an employment that is short-term, temporary or part-time.
The final certificated staff member position, held by a high school science teacher, was eliminated due to the reduction in force.

The board did not vote on the specifics of the staff reduction in force.
During the audience input portion of the meeting, Annette Gavette expressed concern over not being able to hear the “school’s side of the story” in regards to the reduction in force, after reading a previous story in the Nisqually Valley News.

“My property taxes have doubled since 2022,” Gavette said. “Fortunately, I’m in a position where I can afford it, but I’m concerned about other people who continue to have their taxes go up when they have just one income and so I just feel that there needs to be an explanation since the levees did pass, and I think, with that, we all assumed that the school was (in) pretty solid shape since you got all the money that you asked for.”

Gavette concluded by saying she hoped for more transparency and communication from the board to the community when there are issues that residents would want to know about.

Board Chairman Jerry Sprouffske thanked Gavette and, while noting that the board doesn’t typically comment on audience input as a matter of policy, alluded to Superintendent Bahr’s forthcoming presentation, and said that money from the capital levy cannot be moved to fund staff.

In 2024, local taxpayers approved two separate levies to support funding for the school district: Proposition 1, an educational programs and operations levy; and Proposition 2, a capital levy for safety, security and maintenance repairs.
Proposition 1 was wide-ranging. The four-year EP&O levy provided funding for not only athletics, extracurriculars, remediation, and special education, but also transportation, food services, teachers, classified staff, administration, custodial staffing, students with special needs, low-income students and more. Rainier School District taxpayers voted to pay approximately $2.50 per $1,000 of assessed property value.

As reported by the Nisqually Valley News, some employees were disappointed after the board voted to approve the reduction in force.

“Our levies passed, one of which was to keep classified employees employed, [so] where is that money being spent?” a Rainier School District employee, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Nisqually Valley News in March. “We have options that could work instead of cuts but they are not being considered.”

To open his presentation on how school funding works in Washington state, Commissioner Bahr acknowledged — and took responsibility — for confusion with the community and some board members.

“School funding is very, very difficult to understand,” Bahr said, before explaining the state requirements that dictate how the district can spend its money from the levies.

Bahr said the Washington state’s prototypical school funding model, which is used to provide funding based on enrollment and staffing assumptions, helps ensure consistency across the state’s schools, but it is both outdated and does not always reflect the unique needs of small school districts like Rainier.

“We have needs like (Advanced Placement) classes,” Bahr said. “We have needs for more teachers… for the specialists so our kids have more enrichment kinds of things. And so that’s why the formula doesn’t work. And it’s 15 years old. So, 15 years ago, are you making the same amount of money as you were making 15 years ago? No, you’re not. But the state is still paying us at that rate for 15 years ago.”

Bahr explained that the EP&O levy, which is voted on every four years, is used to collect money from community property taxes, paying for programs, staff and learning support that the state doesn’t fully cover.

“It’s an enrichment levy, and it’s supposed to help us with special ed, sports, art and teacher salaries,” Bahr said. “This money is for day-to-day expenses to keep schools running.”

Capital levies, on the other hand, are used as a “way of not having to go out for a bond,” Bahr said, adding that this money is normally used for repairs needed to upgrade buildings based on the “efficiency rate” decided on by the state through the Clean Building Act, though the state doesn’t provide the district money to do the repairs.

“You’re going to see capital levy money be used in May,” Bahr said. “May 28, we start tearing off the old track out here and replacing the track. Now people are saying, well, ‘Why are we replacing the track when you’re saying we’re having to cut people, but yet we’re redoing the track? Why are we doing that when people are losing their jobs?’ Because we can only use the capital levy money for what we said we were going to use it for. And that is for fixing leaking roofs, upgrading computers, improving playgrounds. You can’t use it for salaries for teachers.”

Bahr compared a third funding option, bonds, to mortgages and said they are used for big construction projects like building schools and gyms, or doing huge remodels.

“You can only pay teachers or staff, again, through the EP&O levies,” Bahr reiterated.

Bahr said that the district doesn’t get any money from the state for extracurricular items like sports, coaches or clubs, which cuts into the EP&O levy money that already provides for teacher and staff salaries — especially when state funding isn’t enough — and other additional positions the state doesn’t fully fund, like counselors, nurses and instructional aids.

“They only pay us $78,290 for a teacher in the prototypical school model,” Bahr said, referring to the state of Washington. “The Rainier teacher average is $89,000, and that comes out of the levy. The extra money comes out of our EP&O levy.”

Bahr noted that the state no longer provides additional compensation for longevity and the years teachers are in a district, which are contributing factors to the higher average salary in Rainier.

“We (also) pay 14,000 for medical insurance for each employee,” Bahr said. “That’s just medical. If an employee declines medical benefits, the district still has to pay the $14,000. That makes no sense to me. We have several staff that are retired military and they don’t take our medical, but yet the district still has to pay $14,000 for each of those individual staff members.”

Bahr said the district also pays retirement, unemployment and workers compensation benefits along with the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) federal payroll tax.

Bahr outlined other budget challenges when it comes to paying medical benefits for long-term substitute teachers, as well as the need for additional funding for materials, supplies and other operating costs, also known as MSOC.
Senate Bill 5192, which was delivered to the governor on April 25, 2025, intends to increase funding for school district materials, supplies and operating costs to help keep pace with inflation.

“We get $420,000 from the state for (insurance and utilities),” Bahr said. “Last year’s utilities and insurance costs were $880,000.”

“And then, lastly, the state transportation only pays for to (school) and back home,” Bahr said.

All other trips for extracurriculars, Bahr said, come out of the EP&O levy.

“Our projections show that we will be at $700,000 in the hole by the end of the year 2027-28,” Bahr said. “So that’s why we are trying to be proactive and starting to make some trims now. It’s not like we’re in dire straits, we’re not broke, but we’re tightening our belt, and we’re doing (it as) good stewards of our money. That’s what we’re trying to do. And it’s disheartening, it’s hard to tell people, ‘I’m sorry, we don’t need you anymore.’ But we’re looking at places that we can make these cuts, that are away from the classroom that don’t impact kids and their learning.

“So finally, based on our current projections, if we continue at the current spending patterns, we are facing an estimated deficit of approximately $710,000 by the end of 27-28 school year. To remain aligned with our collective bargaining agreements… we have with our unions, any changes to staff programs, we have to make those by May 15.”

Bahr added that they wanted to give any teachers they let go a chance to get open jobs.

“These changes are intended to minimize the need for reduction in force while having the least possible impact on students’ classroom instruction,” Bahr said. “I want to be very clear: we are not eliminating the Title program. However, given the uncertain surrounding future of federal funding, we are taking a proactive approach. We are concerned that Title funding may face the same fate as the Head Start program, which they have eliminated or paused. Our intention is to continue offering Title services but through a different service model that will be similar to what we have been doing in the past. This allows us to stay committed to support students while preparing for potential changes at the federal level. Thank you for understanding.”

Bahr concluded his presentation by inviting anyone who wants more information to email, call, or come by his office, saying “I will gladly sit down with you.”

According to Rainier’s business manager, Debi Holmes, the Rainier School District’s budget will be available for public review the first week in July. The budget hearing will happen later that month. The budget will be also posted on the Rainier School District website.

Earlier in the meeting, the board also voted to approve the hiring of a new business manager, LeAnn Bennett.

The next Rainier School Board meeting is scheduled for May 21, at 6 p.m.