Superintendent Jesse told the Shelton School Board on the evening of the district's June meeting that federal and state funding cuts will reduce direct services for students, including supports for multilingual learners, students experiencing homelessness and after-school programming. "We have received notification from the federal government...there would be a cut in funding for some federal programs," he said.
Jesse said the district expects about $1 million less funding than in previous years and that the reduction will translate into fewer staff and diminished services. He pointed to Evergreen Elementary as an example and said roughly 65% of third-graders there qualify for multilingual services. "When we receive less funding...that is going to lead to a diminished amount of quality of the services we can provide," Jesse said.
The superintendent also linked the cuts to broader state changes: he said the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction's (OSPI) Office of School Improvement was closed last week, removing a state-level resource districts have used for two decades. "If you hear alarm bells out there, you should," he said, urging community members to advocate for public education.
Board members asked for rough counts and clarifications. When asked how many students participate in credit-recovery programs this summer, Jesse said the district typically serves about 100 students, though numbers can vary. He also noted the cuts could affect transportation and meals for extended programs and that precise federal dollar amounts had not yet been provided to the district.
The remarks came during the superintendent's report portion of the board meeting; no formal board action was taken on the funding issue at that meeting.