‘Downright disastrous.’ Parents, teachers push back on new round of Richland school cuts
Teachers, parents, staff and community members are speaking out about proposed cuts to Richland School District’s nurses and librarians.
It’s the latest budget bombshell to drop as the Tri-Cities school district looks to align spending with stagnant revenue sources.
Cuts for this school year and next have been numerous, and include reductions to basic education paraeducators, athletics transportation, K-8 school supplies, and cuts to salaries and vacant positions.
The district plans to cut nurses and librarians for the 2025-26 school year, then reorganize health and secondary school library operations around remaining employees — a plan expected to save the district about $1.2 million.
But all who spoke up at last week’s Richland School Board meeting say the move could harm student learning and well being. They’re pleading for administrators to reverse course.
“Even before COVID, our nurse staffing levels were inadequate and unsafe. And this decision is making it downright dangerous,” said Danielle Harvey, a nurse in Richland schools.
Nurses offer students more than just first aid, she argued. They assess symptoms, provide health education, manage chronic conditions and directly contribute to the academic success of students.
Nurses also keep students in class by addressing health issues and injuries promptly. Fewer of these professionals could lead to higher rates of chronic absenteeism, one nurse argued.
“Their role bridges the gap between health care and the classroom. Removing them puts students at serious risk,” Harvey continued. “This decision directly contradicts the district’s own strategic goals around well being, academic success and safety. We cannot claim to prioritize student achievement while simultaneously cutting the very professionals who help students achieve it.”
Kim Maldonado, an instructional coach at Hanford High School, spoke up for her school’s librarian, Michelle Blackburn.
She told the school board that Blackburn has transformed their library beyond “a room with books” and that her passion is “contagious.”
Hanford would be losing “a key educator who supports every grade, every subject and every student,” Maldonado said.
“Her impact goes beyond books. She teaches research skills, how to find credible sources – which at this point we really need people to learn – and navigate databases and sites properly,” she said.
“Her lesson in my class on dystopian literature sparked interest in students who had never considered reading that genre, let alone reading a book sometimes,” Maldonado continued.
Most of Richland’s librarians have several decades of certificated experience, putting their average base salary at about $113,000.
Nurses take home about $87,300 of base salary on average.
District leaders acknowledge pain
Superintendent Shelley Redinger, school board President Katrina Waters and other district leaders have acknowledged the impacts of cuts, but say they’re necessary to place the district on better financial footing.
“We know this is hard on everybody. We don’t have money. The bottom line is that the school district, if we don’t make cuts, we’ll end up in binding conditions,” Waters said.
The district is not insolvent, but it’s spending in recent years has far outpaced its revenues. It came to a head in the fall, after district leaders realized general budget reserves were forecast to dip below half a million dollars by July 2025.
Despite passing balanced budgets, actual expenditures eclipsed revenues by $6.5 million in 2022-23 and again by $1.5 million in 2023-24.
In addition to increased costs for materials and operations, insurance, special education services, transportation and other line items, Richland’s annual state match revenue for having an active levy dropped by $10 million as property values in the district skyrocketed.
“We are trying to get the cost of the services we provide in line with the funding that we receive to provide the services. So, our goal as a board is to try to keep the student-facing services as intact as possible, but trying to get the cost of it in-line with the money that we get from the state,” Waters said.
Richland’s plan for 2025-26 nurses
The district is reducing its number of full-time nursing positions from 16 to 10.
It’s a move Richland leaders say will return them back to pre-pandemic levels, since additional staff were hired to respond to the COVID pandemic.
Washington state covers a fraction of the cost to retain one full-time nurse in schools of “prototypical” sized enrollment. For example, the state covers just half the salary of a full-time nurse for a 400-student elementary school.
School districts fund the remaining gap of what’s needed through local levy dollars.
Health rooms that see cuts will be staffed by trained paraeducators, but certified school nurses will continue to provide oversight and specialized care as needed.
In a district news release, officials said nursing services will continue to be “responsive to student needs,” and that more staff would be added in the future to “ensure student well being.”
But nurses who reached out to the Tri-City Herald called the changes troubling. Meghan Jones, a nurse at Columbia River Elementary in Pasco, says Richland’s nurse-to-student ratio would rise from about 1 to 900 students to 1 to 1,500.
“Richland’s students deserve a learning environment where their health needs are met without delay. Nurses not only ensure physical safety but also support the district’s educational mission by minimizing disruptions. Reducing our nursing staff will overextend resources, especially for students with chronic conditions who rely on consistent monitoring,” Jones said.
Cuts to secondary librarians
The district will also implement a new “oversight model” in the fall for its middle school and high school libraries.
Elementary library services will not be affected, the district says.
The new model calls for replacing librarians working in the four middle schools and two high schools with a district-level certified librarian.
“As part of this change, professional educators currently serving as secondary librarians will return to classroom teaching roles, continuing to serve students in the classroom,” the news release read.
The district would instead use paraeducators to manage library operations while expanding hours.
District administrators say this change will ensure “continued, high-quality support and consistent access to resources across campuses.” The district employs about eight librarians, according to 2024-25 school year salary data.
But public commenters at the school board meeting say paraeducators are not equipped to fulfill the role and a lack of access may impact student literacy.
Krista Calvin, president of the Richland Education Association, the school district’s teacher union, urged the school board and administrators to reconsider the cuts to nurses and librarians. She says her union will look at “all avenues” to advocate for those workers.
Following the community’s comments, school board member Rick Jansons briefly addressed the district’s budget problems and offered an apology for poor oversight during the chaotic time around COVID.
“I think I have some responsibility in not watching the budget closely enough,” the longest serving school board member told the public.
“I took some things at face value that I shouldn’t have taken, and didn’t investigate deeply enough. So, I’m going to apologize on behalf of the board for a few years ago. (We) should have been watching this more closely. We were spending more than we were taking in and the results are being inherited by some of the people on this board, and by you,” Jansons continued.
