Washington Cut Positions by Not Filling Them. The Course Those Positions Taught Still Needs a Teacher.

Public school districts across Washington opened this fall with fewer adults in the building. Franklin Pierce, south of Tacoma, is down about 50 positions, many of them educators. Port Angeles has eight fewer teaching positions. Bellingham is starting the year with about 60 fewer positions, more than half of them teachers, according to KNKX reporting published by OPB. Most of Bellingham's reduction came from retirements and voluntary departures, and those positions went unfilled.

"The escalating cost of doing business has first forced us to spend our fund balance, and now is forcing us to make additional cuts so that we can rebuild that fund balance," Franklin Pierce Superintendent Lance Goodpaster said. State Superintendent Chris Reykdal said the share of Washington's general fund going to schools fell from 52% in 2019 to 42% in 2025, and does not expect the enrollment-based funding model to change soon. The legislature meets in January facing another shortfall.

Our view: attrition is the politest way to cut, and it is still a cut. When a district declines to replace the chemistry teacher who retired, the chemistry section does not retire with her. It gets combined, reassigned to someone teaching out of field, or dropped. The schedule does not distinguish between a layoff and an unfilled vacancy; students experience both as a course that is gone. The question for a district that has already spent its fund balance is not whether to hold positions open. It is how to keep the course when the position is.

What happened

From the September 20 KNKX report:

• Franklin Pierce: about 50 fewer positions this fall, many educators; the district spent down its fund balance before cutting and is now cutting to rebuild it. Its union president, a music teacher, said larger classes leave less time with each student.
• Port Angeles: eight fewer teaching positions. Bellingham: about 60 fewer positions, more than half teachers, mostly through unfilled retirements and resignations.
• Districts cited rising costs for materials, salaries and liability insurance, plus mandated special education and transportation costs. Statewide enrollment fell more than 4% from 2019 to 2025.
• The state provided more than $15,000 per student in 2024–25; most of the K-12 operating budget is salaries and benefits, so cuts fall on staff.
• Reykdal is seeking nearly $2 billion more for schools in the 2027–29 budget, including $1.2 billion his September 14 letter to Governor Ferguson says is needed to meet basic education obligations. The House Education Committee chair said lawmakers must be careful about costly new policies; the House Republican budget lead argued for funding K-12 first. Vancouver Public Schools agreed in August to state binding conditions, the step before formal financial oversight.
• Goodpaster: "Whether or not they've had to do reductions in force this year depends on whether or not they did it last year, or the year before that, or are just projecting it to next year."

Attrition is the politest way to cut, and it is still a cut.

What it means for districts (analysis)

Everything to this point is sourced to the reporters' and the officials'. The next section is opinion, labeled as such.

An unfilled position is a decision about a course. Bellingham's 60 positions did not disappear from a spreadsheet; they disappeared from master schedules. For every retirement not backfilled, someone decided which section to combine, which elective to drop, or which teacher would pick up a sixth prep. Attrition hides that decision from the board. It does not hide it from students.

The fund-balance sequence is the tell. Franklin Pierce's superintendent described the order precisely: spend reserves, then cut to rebuild them. Districts in that second phase are cutting into the schedule, because the non-instructional reductions came out in phase one. The courses at risk now are the single-section ones that a full-time position cannot justify on its own.

January will not solve October. A nearly $2 billion request in a shortfall session is a long shot, and even a win arrives for 2027–28. The sections combined this fall stay combined. Districts need a plan for the courses they have already lost that does not depend on Olympia.

Hold the position, not the course. A district that cannot afford to backfill a retirement can still keep the course on the schedule by delivering it live, from a certified educator, for the one or two sections that need it, with the paraprofessional or an in-building teacher as facilitator. That costs a fraction of a position and keeps the catalog whole while the fund balance rebuilds.

Practical considerations for district leaders

1. List every position held open this year and the course or caseload it covered. That list is the cost of attrition, and the board should see it alongside the savings.
2. Sort the affected courses into combined, reassigned out of field, and dropped. The third category is where families notice first; the second is where outcomes slip quietly.
3. For each dropped or out-of-field section, put a full delivered cost on three options: restore the position, leave it, or deliver the section live with a facilitator.
4. Schedule intervention like a course and report on it like one; that is its best defense when the budget returns.
5. Plan 2027–28 on the assumption that the legislature delivers nothing new. Anything more is upside.

Where Fullmind fits

Bellingham is down about 60 positions, mostly retirements not backfilled. The courses those positions taught still need a teacher. Fullmind holds the course while the district holds the position: a Washington-certified educator teaches the section live, on the school's bell schedule, with an in-building facilitator, for the semester or the year. Elevate K-12 is now part of Fullmind.

• LIVE Staffing covers the chemistry section the retirement left behind; in one partner district Fullmind students were 20% more likely to receive a C or above.
• High Dosage Tutoring restores intervention capacity a 50-position reduction compresses; Yuba City, California grew from 24 to 194 tutored students in one year and published the ELA comparison with Fullmind.
• SWD Services & IEP Fulfillment covers a special education position among the unfilled. State-certified special educators, drawn from Fullmind's more than 3,000 educators, deliver the special education instruction.

Franklin Pierce is cutting to rebuild a fund balance it already spent. This is a way to rebuild it without rebuilding the catalog afterward.

Run the numbers with us

Send us the list of positions your district held open this fall and the courses each one taught. We will show which sections a live model would hold, at what cost per section, and which belong back in a permanent position when the fund balance allows. Schedule a consultation with Fullmind.

Bottom line

Washington districts opened this fall with fewer staff: about 60 fewer positions in Bellingham, about 50 in Franklin Pierce and eight fewer teaching positions in Port Angeles, with Bellingham's loss coming mostly from retirements and departures that were not replaced. The reporting has limits. It covers a handful of districts, not a statewide count, and it does not say which courses were combined, reassigned or dropped, or how students were affected. A budget request for 2027–29 does not change this school year.

The decision it informs is what to do with the positions already held open: list each one with the course or caseload it covered, show the board that list beside the savings, and price the options for each course.

Sources: KNKX via OPB, "Washington teachers feel strain from budget pressures as fewer staff return," September 20, 2026; Washington State Standard via OPB, "Reykdal seeks $2B infusion for Washington public schools in next budget," September 12, 2026; OSPI, Superintendent Reykdal's 2027–29 operating budget request letter to Governor Ferguson, September 14, 2026; OPB, "Vancouver Public Schools accepts state financial oversight amid budget woes," August 19, 2026; Fullmind Impact & Research and Yuba City case study. Figures are the reporter's and officials' own; the analysis section reflects Fullmind's interpretation.

Related: Districts Keep Missing Their Enrollment Forecasts. The Fix Isn't a Better Forecast.