‘Everything has to be on the table’: Seattle Public Schools superintendent says closures still possible to fix $87M deficit

Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Ben Shuldiner made it clear in March that he is not afraid to cut the administrative fat to ease an $87 million deficit.

Shuldiner told “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio on Tuesday that nothing is off the table when it comes to fixing the district’s budget, warning that if Seattle Public Schools doesn’t close the gap, it will be forced to borrow money from the state and essentially lose control of the district.

“We’re still bankrupt. The last budget, we kind of were pretty clear about being about $100 million in the hole, it’s about $87 million. We have some savings. The budget that we’re kind of showing for next year is going to bring those savings down to emergency levels, and if we don’t fix the budget this year, we’re going bankrupt,” he explained. “And the problem with the school district is that you’re not allowed to go bankrupt, you’re not allowed to be below zero, so you actually would then have to borrow money, and the money you’re borrowing from the state, and then that means you kind of give away your rights.”

Shuldiner said the state gives districts about a year to solve the deficit, and if it’s still not fixed, the district, in essence, has to hand over the keys.

“What we’re trying our best to do is be really clear — like we can’t pretend that well, if we just wish for more money, it’ll appear, it won’t — is being really thoughtful about how do we make cuts that make the most sense,” he said.

‘We’re in bad shape’: Seattle Public Schools superintendent says district has 10 months to solve budget

When asked about possible school closures, Shuldiner said: “Everything has to be on the table.”

“If you said to me, ‘Well, Ben, there’s a way to save money, but you can’t look at it.’ Well then, what am I doing? I’m not serving our children. But I think that we can be really thoughtful about how we do save money, how we do be more articulate and more efficient around what we’re doing and what we’re saying,” he added. “So, yeah, we’re in bad shape. I’ve never shirked from saying that, but the good news is we’ve already cut about $50 million from the budget moving forward for next year. The problem is with automatic salary increases with COLA, and automatic inflation being what it is, even if you saved $50 million, that doesn’t mean that you are now less than $50 million, because there are now extra costs.”

Shuldiner said the district has about 10 months to figure out the budget.

“I think we’re working really hard. I want to thank all of our labor partners, as well as all of our employees, our families, our kids, and our budget office. We’re trying really hard to figure this out, but it’s pretty tough, and we’ve got to put everything on the table,” he said.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.