Lopez Island School calls on the community for support with financial crisis

Published 1:30 am Thursday, July 24, 2025

Submitted by Isara Greacen, budget intern at Lopez Island School District.

For generations, Lopez School has been the beating heart of our small island community. It’s where our children learn, grow and thrive, from kindergarten through high school. Serving both Lopez and Decatur islands, the Lopez Island School District includes a single K-12 public school and a K-8 program on Decatur. With fewer than 200 students total, LISD is one of the smallest school districts in Washington, yet it is essential to our island community.

Today, the district is facing the most serious financial crisis in its history.

The district currently has no reserve fund, and the 2025–26 school year poses an anticipated deficit of more than $300,000. This gap, if not addressed, would force the school into “binding conditions” – a designation that would hand control over to the state and strip our community of its ability to shape the education of our own children. Programs that make Lopez School so special, like the Garden program, the culinary arts initiative, music, athletics and outdoor experiential learning would all be at risk of cuts. Even more devastating, this would mean further staff reductions and fewer resources for the students who need them most.

How did we get here?

The roots of the financial crisis trace back to 2018, when the Washington state Legislature responded to the McCleary court decision by overhauling the way public schools are funded. While this reform aimed to improve equity statewide, it had the unintended consequence of severely disadvantaging small rural districts like ours.

The most damaging change was the so-called “levy lid,” which capped the amount of local funding a district can raise per student. For Lopez, this meant a drop from $4,100 to just $2,500 per student, a devastating blow, especially when so much of the district’s operating budget depends on local support. Meanwhile, the Prototypical School Funding Model adopted by the state assumes that all schools can be staffed according to a universal template. It simply doesn’t work for small, remote districts where classes are small and teachers and staff wear many hats.

At the same time, student enrollment is declining. The recent graduating class of 2025 was significantly larger than our incoming kindergarten class, resulting in a net loss of 10 students. Because funding is tied to enrollment, fewer students generate less money, even though the cost of running a school remains the same.

In response, the district has already been forced to make deep and painful cuts. Staff positions have been consolidated, discretionary spending has been slashed and programs have been restructured or eliminated, or are now fully dependent on generous private funding. Superintendent Brady Smith and the LISD Budget Committee have combed through every line of the budget seeking efficiencies and savings. However, even after all of that, a $300,000 hole remains.

The consequences of not filling this deficit would be devastating.

Without a functioning local school, Lopez will struggle to keep young working families on the island. And without young families, the island’s economy, already strained by housing costs and worker shortages, will suffer further. Local businesses rely on the vitality that school families bring. The arts, youth sports, community events and the all-around long-term sustainability of Lopez itself are all deeply tied to the presence of a thriving public school.

We have already seen what’s possible when a community comes together. Just recently Spring Street International School on San Juan Island raised over $2 million in emergency donations to keep its doors open. We don’t need $2 million. We need $300,000. If just 100 people gave $3,000, we would meet our goal. If 300 people gave $1,000, we’d be there. Every gift, large or small, will make a difference.

We are not just trying to save a school, we are trying to preserve the diversity and well-being of Lopez. We are trying to protect the promise that every child on Lopez, regardless of their family’s income or background, can receive a high-quality, well-rounded public education close to home. We are trying to ensure that our youth continue to have access not only to academics but to the programs that nurture their creativity, leadership and sense of belonging.

When people from outside our island hear what our students experience at Lopez School like enjoying school-grown produce in school lunches, hands in the dirt learning in the school garden, playing on championship varsity sports teams, performing with the school band or MPPACT on stage, earning seals of biliteracy, individualized college guidance, trade apprenticeships and more, they are amazed. But those of us who live here know: this is what Lopez can do when we work together. Now we must do it again. We must rally around our students, our families and our future. We must close this gap and ensure that children on Lopez and Decatur can continue to have access to a quality public education on the island for generations to come. We must come together to support the school because a strong school means a strong Lopez. And we can’t afford to lose either.

Donations can be made directly to the school or through partner organizations like the Lopez Island Education Foundation and the PACK.

For more information, email Superintendent Brady Smith at bsmith@lopezislandschool.org.