School year starts with plenty of challenges

Rod Broadnax has goals for Lake Roosevelt Schools. He wants Lake Roosevelt students safe and learning, in a school that is recognized for its academic rigor, as well as its athletics programs, and is fiscally solid, while increasing student enrollment and parental engagement.

That's a lot. And big changes have been made to address the challenges ahead.

The Grand Coulee Dam School District superintendent took time to speak with the Rotary Club Thursday, the same day he was explaining new requirements to staff in preparation for the new school year, which will be his third year at GCDSD.

The school has moved to a four-day week with a block schedule for students. The school board agreed the change would work in a community where two major employers have also implemented four-day work weeks.

A major goal of the district is to build up a Career and Technical Education program.

"Well, if we're going to have CTE and have more frameworks for students, we want to get the opportunity for them to do all their core work in three years," Broadnax said. "You're basically done after your junior year. Senior year you can work. We can do some workforce development. You can do CTE" including some "certifications, so if you decide not to go to college, you still have the certification in your hand to make decent money without going to college."

Broadnax said parents want more security. The board passed a policy requiring clear backpacks, and the school will have a school resource officer in it this year. A Coulee Dam police officer will split his time between that department and the school district, which will pay $40,000 for the service.

Attendance, of both students and staff, has been a big problem at the school.

This year, teachers will have to submit lesson plans, and principals will check on their progress on those plans.

Unpaid leave for all staff will now have to be cleared through Broadnax before it's taken, he said. "They have to call me personally on my cell phone, even if it's two o'clock in the morning. ...I was telling them today, I need you to be at work for the kids," he said. "The kids are counting on you."

From a fiscal perspective, all of the changes are happening to keep students coming back. Each one who doesn't, takes about $9,100 a year with them in lost state "apportionment" funding.

Enrollment has been in decline, he said. It's gone from 711 full-time equivalent students in 2022-23 school year to 675 last year. For the current year, the district budgeted for 635 students. If that's where it lands, it will mean the district has lost nearly $700,000 a year in state funding.

Broadnax said some have left to go to online schools, which other districts are offering. So, to cater to those student needs, the GCDSD district is developing an online school that will be called GCDSD I-Campus. Online students will have the option to come into the I-Campus "learning pods" if they need more help.

The district's operating budget is about $14.2 million a year. The current budget anticipated ending with about only $400,000 left - too little, Broadnax said. Earlier in 2025, when coming budgetary problems started to loom, he told the board that the district was top heavy with too much administration. Through attrition, he's eliminated a human resources director, combined that job with another and added those to one other administrative position.

Some teachers have retired or moved on, and their jobs will not be filled, he said, and the budgetary whittling has gotten the expected end-of-year balance up to about $800,000. Last year, the balance was $3.3 million.

The squeeze was worsened by a state-mandated cost of living pay rise that will cost the district about $180,000, of which the state will chip in $36,000, plus a now 10-year-old playground area that needs repairs of up to a half million. And Nespelem School District's decision to launch its high school offerings "has kind of hit us hard" Broadnax said.