The Bainbridge Island School District took a massive step toward fiscal stability May 8 when board members certified $6.8 million in program and staff reductions for the 2025-26 school year, avoiding binding conditions, the need for a second interfund loan and achieving a positive fund balance for the 2024-25 school year.

It ends a major chapter in BISD’s 20-month budget crisis saga, but the district still has a long way to go.

“One question I anticipate getting from staff and community members is, ‘Why did you choose to reduce beyond the target of $6.6 million?’ And the answer is that we have to have contingency funds,” said superintendent Amii Thompson. ”If our actual enrollment comes in lower than projected, we have to pay back the state. We also have a lot of unexpected expenses come up … if you think about your household budget, it’s no different in our school system.”

As of the May 8 meeting, 45 reduction-in-force notices were issued to staff in four different employee groups at BISD, achieving $6.2 million of cost savings. Between RIFs, program reductions, attrition and merging of duties, about 76 separate positions will not be refilled next year.

The majority of reductions cut down staff hours rather than whole positions, ranging anywhere from 30 minutes fewer per day to seven fewer days per year. Some staff contracts will be school-year-only going forward, some positions will be part-time and some staff will take up to three furlough days. Others will remain full-time, but will take up additional responsibilities under their same title to accommodate another position that the district will not refill.

“This year, and in actuality almost every one of our employees next year, is going to be working a little bit more for a little bit less,” Thompson said. “We have to have a healthy financial plan over the next three to five years, that looks at ‘How do we incrementally build back up our fund balance, while also being mindful of putting back in some compensation because we want to retain our staff and pay a fair, livable wage?’ … I believe we can do both.”

16 of the total RIFs ended a full-time position. Additionally, 23 employees left the district through resignations or retirements, which can only be refilled if funding allows, Thompson explained.

“The cost savings amount I’m sharing this evening are a snapshot in time. I do not expect that there will be large swings from the amounts, but there will be changes every time there is attrition. If there is a person who retires or takes a leave, that will create a change in cost savings, because likely, the person that we are going to be replacing them with from the recall pool will cost less from a staffing perspective than the person that’s currently occupying that position,” Thompson said.

The two largest employee unions, the BI Educators Association, which represents certificated teachers, and the BI Educational Support Association, which represents classified school staff, saw the largest amount of reductions. $3.4 million came from BIEA, or 62% of the cost-savings goal, and $1.7 million came from BIESPA, or 25%. Cuts to administrators and employees not represented by a union saved about $784,000.

Only the Bainbridge Island Extracurricular Association, the union representing coaches and sports staff, saw zero RIFs. Going forward, all coaching assistant salaries will be paid through the general fund by fundraising from Booster clubs and about $11,000 in equipment expenses will be covered by the Associated Student Body.

Nearly all the district’s reductions “achieved and exceeded” the target cost savings for each group, in some cases by hundreds of thousands of dollars. BIEA and BIESPA staff saw the largest amount of savings exceeded the district’s goal, at about $246,000 and $237,000, respectively, though for very different reasons.

For BIEA, those savings were achieved in part due to tentative contract concessions granted by the union to forgo a cost-of-living increase to teacher salaries in 2025-26, an annual state funding process that helps districts keep up with inflation. Called the Implicit Price Deflator, IPD does not equate to a pay raise in the traditional sense; every year, the state calculates its apportionment for a school district and adjusts it slightly based on inflation, which the district then receives into its general fund.

Usually, districts pass that additional funding along to staff in the form of a 2.5% pay bump, but since it’s general funding from the state, the money is not earmarked for anything specific. If they give up next year’s IPD, BIEA membership may free up $378,000 in general funds for BISD, exceeding their cost-savings goal by $246,000.

“Because [BISD is] not able to provide compensation, we are working together to find ways to creatively reduce staff workload,” said Thompson.

BIESPA membership, on the other hand, kept their contract closed during RIF negotiations, which means classified staff kept their IPD plus a bargained-for annual raise of 2% in order to remain competitive with other districts that may not be facing a tight budget and can provide raises. In order to meet their cost-savings goal, more staff members were reassigned or issued RIFs within BIESPA.

“I know firsthand what they get paid and compensated, and I absolutely respect and understand why they didn’t open their contract, and why it’s really important to maintain that living wage. Because it’s not a living wage on Bainbridge,” said Thompson.

Sheila Jacubik, vice president of BIESPA, said that while the process was difficult, it was “collaborative,” “kind and compassionate.”

“The fact that we can be cutting $6.6 million from our budget and you have three people sitting out in your public group out there is kind of amazing. Typically, when we’re looking at something this big in our district, we would have a whole room full of people and hours of public comment, and so the collaborative-ness of this whole process, I think this speaks to that,” Jacubik said.

But budget constraints are only part of the staffing puzzle.

As enrollment continues to trend downward at BISD, there aren’t enough students to fill out previous years’ “sections,” or the number of classrooms of students in the same grade. Closing these sections — meaning not refilling the position and not allocating funding for any necessary materials or other expenses — constitutes program reductions, even though they may also include a loss of a staff member.

Across the board, program reductions totalled $600,000, though staffing reassignments meant many services and offerings could be retained, including some interventionists, psychological counseling services and multilingual instruction.

“This process has been excruciatingly painful and hard, and it has been one of the most collaborative processes I’ve ever been a part of, with [everyone] that is working diligently and still saying, ‘It’s okay, we’ll go without for this year.’ It was a team effort of coming together on behalf of our students,” Thompson said.