On Tuesday, February 24, Seattle Public Schools (SPS) announced their budget for the 2026-27 school year. The district’s predicted enrollment for Garfield next year is 1,289 students while, in the 24-25 school year, Garfield’s enrollment was 1,443 students. The district’s budget for schools is directly related to the projected enrollment for the following year, meaning if enrollment is either more or less than predicted, changes can be made in October of that school year.
Where the district gets their estimate for enrollment is not clear, and has led to confusion. “There’s a lack of transparency and clarity around how those numbers are calculated,” Kathleen Lendvay, president of the Garfield PTSA, said. Additionally, the waitlist of prospective Garfield students has been a topic of discussion. “The district has basically held down Garfield’s enrollment because we’ve had people on the waiting list in past years who have not been allowed in,” Lendvay said. SPS recently changed their policy to make it easier for students to get off the waitlist and enroll in schools they aren’t zoned to, like Garfield.
The district has also changed the required ratio of full-time teachers to students from 31:1 to 32:1, allowing class sizes to be bigger. “I think there’s a big benefit to students when they can have a smaller class size,” Garfield teacher Bridgit Miller said. She claimed that larger classes add “more responsibility onto individual classroom teachers to be the mental health person in the room in addition to the educator.” Miller also pointed out the extremity of Garfield’s cuts. “If you look at the numbers across the district, you can tell that most buildings are being reduced, but we’re being reduced either the most or the second most among high schools,” she said.
Some people feel that Garfield has been treated equitably by the district, especially in light of the new budget. Vice Principal Ida Acton said she doesn’t “see anything on paper that tells me we’re not being treated equitably.” Acton brought up a few other factors that affected Garfield’s budget in recent years like enrollment decreasing with the opening of Lincoln high school and Title 1 funding. High schools can get federal funding if over half of their students qualify for free and reduced lunch, making them a Title 1 school. Since Garfield provides free and reduced lunch to all students, there is little motivation for families to fill out this extra paperwork. “We’re 11% under the threshold for title funds for free and reduced lunch, and that was kind of interesting to me because we all think it’s under-reported at Garfield,” Acton said.
There is not a lot that can be done for next year to help supplement the budget cuts. Garfield administration sent two mitigation requests for extra funding due to special circumstances regarding security, which were both denied by the district. However, the PTSA has stepped up in past years to help supplement the money that is being cut from the budget and is currently doing so this year. “It would be really hard to be a teacher in this building without the support of the PTSA,” Miller said. The next fundraiser for the PTSA is the Bulldogs 4 Life Bash on March 21, and more information can be found on their website.
