Announce­ment from Prin­ci­pal Stow­ell:

“Good after­noon, RESMS Fam­i­lies,

RESMS has been very for­tu­nate to receive fund­ing from the vot­er-approved City of Seat­tle Levy for the past six years. The 2025–26 school year will be the final year of this levy. While vot­ers have approved a new levy, the City of Seat­tle is cur­rent­ly in the eval­u­a­tion and plan­ning phase for the next roll­out. We expect to have a clear­er pic­ture of how these funds can be accessed by the end of June, with imple­men­ta­tion begin­ning in the 2026–27 school year.

At this time, RESMS has received our bud­get allo­ca­tion for next year, and it does not include levy fund­ing. As a result, we are plan­ning for the 2026–27 school year with an esti­mat­ed $615,000 fund­ing gap. Cur­rent­ly, levy funds sup­port cer­tifi­cat­ed teach­ers, coun­selors, men­tal health ther­a­pists, stu­dent and fam­i­ly advo­cate, a social work­er, tutors, sum­mer school, and addi­tion­al staff time for col­lab­o­ra­tion and pro­fes­sion­al learn­ing.

Com­pound­ing this chal­lenge, Seat­tle Pub­lic Schools is fac­ing an $80–100 mil­lion dis­trictwide deficit, and our build­ing allo­ca­tion has also been reduced.

As always, we will nav­i­gate these chal­lenges thought­ful­ly and respon­si­bly. That said, there will be some dif­fi­cult deci­sions ahead. Our high­est pri­or­i­ty is to make sound, data-dri­ven choic­es that min­i­mize the impact to the stu­dent Raven Expe­ri­ence. I ask for your trust as we take what we are hand­ed and move for­ward col­lec­tive­ly with inten­tion­al­i­ty, joy, and a con­tin­ued com­mit­ment to our upward momen­tum as a com­mu­ni­ty.

You may be won­der­ing, “How can I advo­cate? Who should I con­tact?” For now, I ask that you con­tin­ue sup­port­ing our school as you have been. If and when there are oppor­tu­ni­ties to ele­vate your voic­es with deci­sion-mak­ers, I will be sure to reach out.

Thank you, as always, for your con­tin­ued sup­port.

GO RAVENS!

Zac Stow­ell, Prin­ci­pal”