School Board Recap: August 13, 2026

The Issaquah School Board held a regular meeting on Thursday, August 13, at the Issaquah School District Administration Building. The meeting was open to the public and broadcast live on the district’s YouTube channel, where a recording of the meeting is available. This recap highlights selected topics of discussion and board actions. It is not an official record of the meeting. Official minutes can be found on the district’s board meeting archive webpage, and additional information about future meetings is available on the School Board page.

Public Hearing: 2026-27 Budget

Chief of Finance and Operations Martin Turney and Executive Director of Finance and Budget Moriah Banasick shared a presentation about the draft 2026-27 budget. They also shared the draft Annual Budget Guide. The School Board held a public hearing to receive comments from community members about the budget.

Turney grounded the presentation with reminders of basic facts about the district, as well as the Vision, Mission and Goals for Students, along with highlights of the district’s financial stewardship:

• Clean audit: The Washington State Auditor’s Office, which audits all school districts, reported no material weaknesses, no significant deficiencies and no audit findings for the 2024-25 school year.
• Bond refunding: The district refinanced about $109.7 million in outstanding bonds, generating an estimated $18.6 million in taxpayer savings over six years.
• Levy renewals: Voters approved the renewal of the district’s Educational Programs and Operations Levy, Capital Levy (Technology and Critical Repairs), and Transportation Levy in February of 2026.
• Budget development cycle: Every year, district staff work throughout the year to prepare the following school year’s budget. Financial updates are shared regularly during public sessions of the School Board as well as work study sessions that are open to the public; meetings of the FACT (Financial Analysis Core Team) group.

Banasick reviewed how schools are funded in Washington state. In the Issaquah School District, about 65% of the General Fund comes from the state; 17% is provided by local levy dollars; 10% from local fees, tuition and gifts; 6% from other financing sources; and 2% from federal revenue. She also shared factors in the financial environment that continue to reshape school district budgets across our state, including:

• Enrollment-driven funding: For the 2026-27 school year, we are projecting a 14.6% enrollment decline since the 2019-2020 school year. Enrollment change is not uniform across grade spans. At the high school level, enrollment has remained stable despite decreased enrollment at the elementary level. Board member Sydne Mullings said that the enrollment information is helpful for the community to understand why the district continues to have enrollment above capacity at the high school level, despite lower enrollment at the elementary level. “I do think it is interesting as we talk about our students and where they come in and out of our system ... is people go a lot of places in the earlier grades, but they all come back at high school. All of them,” Mullings said. “We continue to see that while our population may choose to go someplace else, they continually choose to come back to Issaquah (School District), particularly for high school.”
• Demographics have changed in King County, including smaller birth cohorts, housing affordability and changing patterns of people moving in and out of the area.
• Rising operating costs: Statewide, insurance costs have risen by $50 million; for our district, insurance costs increased $2.9 million to $8.5 million within five years.
• State funding gaps: Special education; Materials, Supplies and Operating Costs (MSOC); and student transportation are underfunded. In the 2024-25 school year, those three areas were underfunded in our district by $19.4 million. As we finalize the 2025-26 books, we anticipate that amount will increase.

The district has been working to align the budget and spending with the resources and revenue. As part of that work to “right-size,” the district reduced expenditures by $15.8 million in the 2026-27 budget. That amount includes:

• Reductions in staff from attrition, retirements, resignations and organizational restructuring. Of those staffing reductions 6.35% were administration and operations staffing; 4.24% were school-based staffing.
• Operational efficiencies such as modernization of technology, expenditure reductions and process improvements.
• Resource alignment, including staffing and expenditures aligned with projected enrollment and student needs.

The budget maintains the district’s budget investments in programs and efforts to directly support students, such as:

• Continued funding for all five Transition to Kindergarten classrooms despite a significant reduction in state funding
• Maintained class-size ratios and school-based counseling, behavioral health and student well-being supports
• Expanded advanced coursework, Career and Technical Education, aerospace, and college and career readiness
• Continued implementation of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS); and Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
• Added Mandarin Dual Language at the preschool level and continued elementary pathway planning for this program
• Continued work on future innovation, including construction of the New High School with pathways in engineering, robotics, health sciences and entrepreneurship

Further alignment is likely to be needed to continue to right-size the district’s spending and staffing with enrollment and student needs.

The district’s General Fund resources are allocated to:

• Classrooms: 55% of funds help pay for teachers, instructional staff, curriculum and classroom resources
• Support for classrooms: 20% is spent on counselors, psychologists, nurses, librarians, principals and school support professionals
• Special Services: 14% of the General Fund pays for specialized instruction and legally required services
• Other instructional uses: 4.5% is spent on Learning Assistance Programs, bilingual education, highly capable, local grants
• Community Services: 3.5% supports preschool, Before and After School Care (BASC), ECEAP (Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program), and community programs
• Vocational Education: 3% of the budget is spent on Career and Technical Education programs at the middle and high school level

After the public hearing, board members asked questions of staff, and discussed the district’s finances, process and other topics. The board will consider the proposed budget for approval during the August 27 board meeting.

 

Works in Progress

Superintendent Heather Tow-Yick shared highlights and updates from throughout the district including:

• Recognition of upcoming events, dates, religious and cultural dates.
• Operations, Facilities and Grounds teams across the district have been working over the summer to ensure our schools and buildings are ready for the start of school. Teams from the Before and After School Care (BASC) and Extended School Year (ESY) also have been working throughout the summer to serve our students well, Tow-Yick said.
• Echo Glen School students and staff had a successful summer session, which ran from the end of June through the middle of August.
• Principals, supervisors and administrators met in early August for training, preparation and to work together in extended retreat time. A highlight for administrators was a presentation from student voice from Liberty High School senior Krish Parashar.
• Some district administrators attended a summer session of Harvard Public Education Leadership Project.
• In partnership with the Issaquah Schools Foundation, the Community Clothing Closet, district PTSA groups and other organizations, the district hosted the annual Back-to-School Resource Fair on August 12 at Clark Elementary. The event included help for families including medical appointments, help with Enrollment Verification Process (EVP), haircuts, clothing, school supplies and more. Nearly 1,000 students and community members attended the event.
• Tow-Yick shared the theme of “hope” for the year, and its connection to the district’s Strategic Plan and Portrait of a Graduate work for meaningful goals, pathways and purpose.
   

School Improvement Plan Meetings

Members of the board discussed annual meetings to review School Improvement Plans for every school in the district. This year the meetings will be on December 3 and December 16. Directors shared specific data reporting, including testing and other measurable results, that they would like to review as part of the process.

 

Monitoring Report for Operational Expectation 8, Communication and Support to the Board

District staff presented the monitoring report for Operational Expectation 8, Communication and Support to the Board, for the 2025-26 school year. Board members discussed the timing and calendaring of monitoring reports, the process and work of keeping board members informed throughout the year, and the system for tracking board requests. They approved the monitoring report unanimously.

 

“Board of Distinction” Application with the Washington State School Directors’ Association

Board members discussed WSSDA’s annual Board of Distinction application and awards process, including who will complete the application, topics to include and more. The Issaquah School Board has been named a Board of Distinction by WSSDA for many years running.

 

Legislative Update

Board member Natalie Anderson shared information about legislation and education, including the groundwork for the 2027 legislative session. Topics that Issaquah leaders and leaders from throughout the state will focus on will include fully funding Special Education, more support for operation costs and ensuring the state’s basic education funding model meets the needs of today’s students.