Funding for Highly Capable Services

The budgeting process for the West Valley School District is an extended process due to contractual timelines and state legislature timelines.

Certificated staff include teachers and other staff, such as school counselors and special education staff. State law and collective bargaining agreements require that certificated staff must be informed by May 15 of each year that they will or will not be offered a contract for the following school year.

For the West Valley School District, the state legislature provides the large majority of funding for the overall district budget. Approximately 84% of the revenue for the school district is provided by the state legislature, 9% is locally funded from the local levy, and 7% is provided via federal funding.

Operating expenses are processed through expenditures in the district’s General Fund. It is important to note that, in addition to the General Fund, there are other, specific-use funds for the school district. The General Fund is used for operations, including the costs for certificated staff salary and benefits. The District also has specific-use (restricted-use) funds which include the Capital Projects fund, the Debt Service fund, the ASB fund (Associated Student Body), and the Transportation Vehicle fund. Funds cannot be transferred out of these specific-use funds into the General Fund.

The state legislature meets every year and makes adjustments to school funding. While the legislature sets the budget for two years - the biennium - the legislature still makes adjustments to school funding each year. Adjustments are made based on policies and priorities as well as the realities of revenue forecasts.

All funding from the federal government is provided for specific programs, such as Title I for disadvantaged youth, Title III for bilingual students, and Title IV which funds after school programs at the West Valley Mid-Level Campus.

A large portion of state funding is for specific programs, such as K-3 class size reduction, Special Education, Career and Technical Education, and many other categorical programs.

The state legislature allocates a small amount of funds to the West Valley School District to support services for highly capable students. For the 2024/25 school year, the legislature allocated $166,161 which was 0.185% of the district’s budget.

The legislature stated in 2023 that they intended to provide funding to serve 5% of a school district’s population (RCW 28A.185.020 c265.2).

In West Valley, 633 students qualify for support services for highly capable students. This is 11.4% of the district’s enrollment (OSPI Report Card, https://reportcard.ospi.k12.wa.us/ReportCard/ViewSchoolOrDistrict/100292 )

The District uses basic education funds as well as local levy funds to provide services for highly capable students in West Valley. Services are provided in Grades K-12 through differentiated instruction in general classrooms, the Program for Advanced Learners (PAL) at Wide Hollow Elementary, and advanced classes at our secondary schools, such as College-in-the-High-School and Advanced Placement classes.

To summarize, in the current school year, the District was provided specific, categorical funding from the state to serve 5.0% of the District’s student population for highly capable services but the District used additional basic education funds and local levy funds to serve 11.4% of the student population in West Valley who qualified for highly capable services.

Each year, the budget process for the upcoming school year begins in earnest after Winter Break. District administrators meet with school administrators to review enrollment projections and discuss ways to adjust staffing to meet student enrollment. The goal of these meetings is to ensure that the District can present a balanced budget to the School Board to adopt for the following school year.

Each year, adjustments to staffing are made for the upcoming school year to match the student enrollment projections. Note that it is not possible to construct the final budget until after the state legislature has completed their work. However, staffing projections must be completed prior to May so that contracts can be issued to certificated staff by May 15.

In Spring 2024, it was noted that the timeline for identifying students for the PAL program needed to be adjusted. The timeline was adjusted in the 2024/25 school year.

Parents for students who qualified for highly capable services were notified in February 2025 of the opportunity for the PAL program at Wide Hollow. Parents of students who scored at Level 3 were notified that they could choose to have their child attend the PAL program for the 2025/26 school year. Parents of students who scored at Level 2 were notified that they could choose to have their child attend the PAL program if there was space available. Parents of students who were from out-of-district were informed upon registration that placement is reviewed annually on a space available basis.

As previously reported, District administrators reviewed the student enrollment projection for the PAL program in March and made the decision to reduce staffing in the program to meet the student enrollment projection. For the 2025/26 school year, students in the PAL program will be served in two multi-age classrooms.

It is important to note: The PAL program at Wide Hollow will not be eliminated for the 2025/26 school year.

West Valley’s Superintendent, Dr. Peter Finch, met with the PAL advisory committee in March and listened to concerns of parents and staff members. In addition, parents expressed concerns at the School Board meeting on March 25, 2025.

The West Valley School District is committed to providing professional development to the teachers from the PAL program to ensure that they will provide engaging projects for students that will meet the needs of students with a wide-range of skills and abilities.

Dr. Finch commented, “I truly believe in my previous statement regarding the move to multi-age classrooms. Our community does expect fiscal responsibility from the West Valley School District. The move to multi-age classrooms for the PAL program is a change but I am confident that our students will continue to have an excellent experience in the PAL program and our teachers will continue to meet the unique learning needs of our students who are served by the PAL program."