After months of cutting positions and displacing staff, Pierce County’s largest school district has finalized its budget for the 2025-2026 school year, closing the $30 million budget gap it was tasked with addressing.
Tacoma Public Schools has seen expenses exceed revenues on the scale of tens of millions of dollars in recent years, and this year sounded the alarm about the state of its finances. District officials have spoken publicly about how its reserves have been depleted and said TPS was dangerously close to what state officials call “binding conditions” – when the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction is required to step in to help the district balance its budget.
The district has come under fire from teachers, parents, staff and students for the way it has gone about addressing the $30 million deficit, saying the cuts it has made will disproportionately impact Tacoma’s most vulnerable students and staff…