Auburn School District faces no budget cuts or layoffs
Published 11:52 am Wednesday, July 8, 2026
Auburn School District (ASD) faced no budget cuts per its announced budget for the 2026-27 school year.
Also, in order to balance the budget, no reduction of force was needed, according to a June 17 memo provided by staff to the ASD School Board and Superintendent Alan Spicciati. The board approved the budget June 22.
District staff projects that the TK-12 enrollment for the upcoming school year will be 16,810 students, 1.34% (228 students) less than the enrollment last year of 17,038 students.
Although there will be a slight decrease in enrollment, especially in transition-to-kindergarten (TK) and kindergarten programs, across the district, the budget did not experience a decrease.
Additionally, no major layoffs were necessary to balance the budget, and instead there is a projected increase in staff.
Certificated staff full-time equivalent (FTE) is projected to be 1,313 which is an increase from 1,296 in 2025-26, a 1.3% (17 staff) increase. This number almost reaches what it was in the 2023-2024 school year of 1,339. This is the first time that this number has increased in three years, according to district documents.
Classified staff FTE increased to 865 for 2026-2027 from 759 the previous school year, a 14% (106 staff) increase. This is by far the highest increase in the past few years.
Although expenditures did increase by 2.8% compared to the 2025-26 school year’s budget to $383.6 million, special education is still underfunded by $13.5 million and transportation by $1.3 million, according to the budget memo.
For the upcoming school year’s budgeted expenditures, 73.7% of it is dedicated to instruction, 8% for instructional support, 7.5% for maintenance and operations and 3.7% for school food services.
In terms of budgeted expenditure by object, more than $200 million is dedicated to both certificated and classified salaries.
Revenues increased by 3.1% compared to the previous year to $383.9 million.
A highlight that the memo called out was Local Effort Assistance (LEA), funding from Washington state to help school districts with low valuations, is expected to see an increase of $5.1 million.
The district is also planning to purchase five new school buses for the upcoming school year, which will cost an estimated $1.4 million. The revenue will come from investment earnings as well as state allocation due to school bus fleet depreciation.
In comparison to neighboring districts such as the Kent School District (KSD), no budget cuts or layoffs, are surprising. The Kent School Board “approved a reduction of 229 employees to help cover an estimated $32.5 million deficit,” according to the Kent Reporter.
Auburn School Board President Sheilia McLaughlin shared her excitement about the no budget cuts or layoffs.
“Isn’t it amazing? We take our fiduciary responsibility seriously and are so proud to work with Dr. Alan Spicciati and the Cabinet to make sure we don’t have to make cuts that directly affect our kids’ education,” McLaughlin said.
Additionally, in November, ASD’s Board of Directors have proposed a bond measure for a fifth middle school to be built. Major renovations of Cascade Middle School and Alpac Elementary school will be included as well.
McLaughlin gave a reminder about this bond measure.
“We currently have enough middle schoolers in portables in the district to fill Middle School No. 5 which will be on the November ballot, along with the rebuild of Cascade Middle School and Alpac Elementary,” she said.
The beginning fund balance for the 2026-27 budget for ASD was $24.5 million and with the listed revenue and expenditures, the ending balance will be $24.8 million. This is a $298,972 difference between budgeted revenue and expenditures.
“The Auburn community has long supported the school district and the students, and we are very grateful for the trust they have put in us,” McLaughlin said.
