Cascade School District Board examines financial state

LEAVENWORTH – The Cascade School District Board extended its state of financial emergency status another year as it works to rebuild its reserve, after the district faced unexpected increases in expenditures and decreases in revenue last year.

The school board voted to extend the status during its April 14 board meeting. The district’s fund balance policy requires the district to have 10 percent of expenditures on hand. Its current reserves are under five percent, requiring the extension of the status.

“Even over the next year, we will be needing to be really careful with our funding…We've made a lot of improvements. We are kind of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, but we're still in the tunnel, and we still have some work to come out of it. So really, a lot of gratitude to our staff into our communities or partnering with us,” said CSD Superintendent Tracey Edou.

Edou recognized the efforts of the district to remain in the black last year, as well as the passage of the EP&O and Capital levies. However, the new levies will not go into effect until April 2026.

During a preliminary glance, or “first blush,” at the budget for next year, Director of Business & Finance Brenda Grabski proposed an “aggressive” goal of adding $464,000 to the fund balance each year in order to rebuild the balance in four years.

“Now, moving forward, we need to be able to put some money into savings so that we can handle another emergency. Thank goodness we had a reserve because we used it. So we need to build it up, so if we need to, we can use it again,” said Grabski.

However, the reserve goal and other budget details remain up in the air as uncertainty surrounds funding at the state and federal levels. Grabski plans to present a draft budget in June to the board.

Taylor Caldwell: 509-433-7276 or taylor@ward.media