KENT, Wash. — Kent School District teachers and students are back in school today.
As one of the largest districts in the state, officials say the new year always comes with challenges.
Deputy Superintendent Wade Barringer said they are excited for the first day of school, but as one of the largest districts in the state, a new year comes with challenges.
“We are welcoming back 25,000 students, 4,000 employees. We are super excited,” Barringer said.
Kent Schools Deputy Superintendent Wade Barringer tells us that back in February, there were concerns about a 30-million-dollar budget deficit for the 26-27 school year.
“We looked at our contracts and our licenses, and we are asking ourselves whether those were critical to be able to source things we need,” Barringer said.
He tells us they were considering cutting more than 400 teachers at one point but came to a better solution after negotiating with the teachers’ union.
“We spent all year looking at every position that became vacant and asking ourselves whether that was something we had to fill or could we leave it open,” Barringer said.
He said those efforts evened the budget, but the Kent Education Levy on November’s ballot will determine how they move forward.
“It funds staff, extracurriculars, athletics, activities, music, arts programs, dual language, transportation; it supports so many things in our district,” Barringer said.
Kindergarten teacher Marisabel Curtis said they hope to see some of that funding go to an expansion of the district’s dual language program as well.
“We’ve got kids who are learning their third or fourth language in our classroom; we are like a little UN,” Curtis said.
She said for half the day she teaches one class in Spanish, then for the last half of the day she teaches her second class in Spanish. The classes also switch back and forth between English-speaking topics. She said they can stay with this program from kindergarten to senior year if they choose.
“The goal is to be bilingual and biliterate, to carry a conversation in that target language, of course, but also to read and write in it,” Curtis said.
Right now that program has about 700 students, but Barringer said he hopes to see that expand in the future.
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