Due to a decreasing amount of student attendance in the Twin Falls School District (TFSD), district officials are expecting a cut in the 2025-2026 school year’s funding.
Associate Director of TFSD, Dr. Ryan Nesmith, stated that the school district receives money from federal funds and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) funds from the federal government, and discretionary funds from state tax revenue, but the majority of funding is supplied through attendance-based funding, provided by the state.
In the coming year, the district expects cuts in federal, IDEA, and attendance-based funds, but the majority of the cuts are expected to come from a drop in student attendance in the Twin Falls School District.
When asked about the reason for future budget cuts, Nesmith responded, “Up until 2020, our school district was growing in number of students. In 2019, we had 9,775 students. We currently have 9,000 students.”
The district is estimated to lose “7 units” of funding due to the loss in attendance, which is equal to approximately $1,008,000.
This does not include the projected cuts in IDEA and federal funding, which are not entirely determined yet but are expected to affect the budget of the 25-26 school year.
Nesmith stated that because “The majority of a school district’s budget is made up of the salary and benefits of its employees,” the TFSD office will need to “reduce positions” of “administrators, teachers, and classified staff” in order to handle the budget reduction.
The majority of these staff reductions will occur at the elementary school level.
Most of these positions will “hopefully be reduced through…retirements, and resignations due to relocations,” stated Nesmith, “[TFSD administration] did cut some administrative positions as well.”
When asked how the TFSD district plans to lessen the negative effects of this budget cut, Nesmith confirmed that the district office is offering employees a stipend so “individuals who already know they will be relocating or retiring [can] let us know as soon as possible.”
The district has been working these last weeks to place individuals facing job cuts into positions that will be vacant in the 25-26 school year.
Also, to deal with the reduced funding, the district office has been “evaluat[ing] [their] efficiency across all programs in the school district.”
When asked about the short-term effects of the budget cuts, Nesmith replied that “our students will receive less support due to the reduction in staff…class sizes may increase.”
Affecting Canyon Ridge High School personally, the district office notified CRHS administration that one staff position would need to be cut from the school.
Because of the large department, CRHS administration decided to cut the English department, meaning removing one English teacher and transferring them to Magic Valley High School.
When the English department was notified of this change, 10th and 12th grade English teacher, Mr. Brent Irish, volunteered to take the position at Magic Valley for the 25-26 school year.
Regarding long-term effects, Nesmith stated, “We do not know the full impact of the cuts yet. We have yet to receive a determination of what is going to happen with our Federal funds. This will have a significant impact on several positions in the school district.”
Because the funding decrease is cutting staff positions, students will be directly affected.
Nesmith stated, “Our staff members are the most valuable resource for benefiting the lives of our students… When we have to reduce that resource, we limit the academic, behavioral, and emotional support of our children, who are the very reason why we are here.”
