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Thanksgiving was still on the horizon when 7-year-old Reagan Fletcher handed her mom, Kael, a Christmas list to send to the North Pole.

Scribbled in green marker, Reagan鈥檚 list already began with selfless requests: for her best friend to move back and a classmate to recover from a broken wrist. Then, the usuals: an iPad and boots.

But her last wish was for Santa to keep her school open. 

This fall, she and the community of Prescott, Washington, learned their school was in danger of being shut down due to financial mismanagement. In 2021, the district had a $2 million budget surplus. But this year, Prescott it had roughly $1 million in credit card and bank loan debt. The district 鈥� home to 219 students and 40 employees 鈥� was told by the state department of education in June that it needs about $1 million by the end of March to remain open for the 2026-27 school year. Otherwise, state officials will dissolve the district.

鈥淲e try not to talk about the big details, but she does know that the school could close, and she actually did her [Christmas list] on her own and brought it to me,鈥� Fletcher said of Reagan, who is in second grade. 鈥淪o it’s definitely affecting her 鈥� probably a little bit more than we thought.鈥�

Fletcher is a member of a recently formed parent-teacher organization that has joined the district teachers union and local businesses to raise the to keep Prescott open. They created a , hosted auctions, dinners, sales and festivals, and have even planned a gala. The efforts have raised about $77,000 so far. 

Parents and staff say that if the district is dissolved, the town will lose a place that has not only educated a highly diverse farming population for more than a century, but is a cornerstone of the community.

The Prescott School District has always been small. Serving about 360 residents, it sits among rolling hills in southeastern Washington state, about 25 miles from the Oregon border. Pre-kindergarten through 12th grade classes are held in several buildings on a single campus. 

Most students are Hispanic, and English isn鈥檛 their first language. Many come from the nearby Vista Hermosa community, which has a large migrant population that works in a local fruit orchard. 

At a , the school board and then-Superintendent Justin Bradford said they discovered in fall 2023 that purchases were made with money that was already spent elsewhere, and that the district鈥檚 business manager at the time, who was working remotely from Seattle, had been providing inaccurate financial information since the pandemic began. Things snowballed from there, they said, and soon the administration discovered a stream of unknown overdue bills and unpaid taxes. 

A from the state education department recommended that the district be put under “enhanced financial oversight” after an investigation found accounting wasn鈥檛 supervised and invoices weren鈥檛 processed efficiently. A attributed the problems to repeated turnover in the business manager and finance director positions between September 2021 and August 2024. No employees were named, and no charges were filed.

The district was put under in March 2024 and for the 2024-25 school year by $750,000. After more budget cuts and staff reductions this summer, the district is still grappling with a $1 million deficit. 

When Bradford resigned earlier this year, school Principal Jeff Foertsch stepped in as district leader. He said he had no idea how much financial trouble the district was in. 

鈥淭here were a lot of people we did not know we owed money to 鈥� I was getting emails from them saying [we鈥檙e] a year past due, and there were no records on it,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e were spending more than we were bringing in, and whoever was in charge of reporting those numbers was not reporting it correctly.鈥�

Prescott isn鈥檛 the only district in crisis because of alarming budget deficits. Six other Washington school districts are also in financial oversight, according to the . 

Money mismanagement and overspending has also plagued districts in , , and , among others. One school district in West Virginia is at after it went from having $9 million in the bank to a projected budget deficit in three years.

In Washington, districts under financial oversight can be dissolved if they can鈥檛 come up with a two-year plan that resolves debt while restoring a balanced budget, according to the state education department. The last time a district was shut down was in 2007, when the following financial struggles. 

On Dec. 10, a financial oversight committee recommended that Chris Reykdal, Washington superintendent of public instruction, begin the steps to dissolve Prescott while it searches for more revenue. The superintendent can stop the process if the district raises enough funds by the end of March.

鈥淚f the [Prescott] district is able to secure revenue that is measurable and reliable in the amount of at least $1 million by March 31, 2026, then the district will likely continue operations in the 2026-27 school year,鈥� the department said in an email to 蜜桃影视.

Foertsch said the district鈥檚 plan for recouping the money includes selling teacher housing, which is worth $380,000; asking voters to approve a special tax; fundraising; and seeking help from the state legislature.

Last year, Washington’s Marysville School District was found to be in after a state audit and of the state’s risk management pool. Instead, the district was given money from a special to buy its own insurance. Foertsch said a local state senator is trying to revise the budget to allow any money left over in that fund to be distributed to districts like Prescott. 

鈥淚t would be a bailout, which doesn’t feel good to say,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut [there] is a possibility that we can get a little bit of money as well.鈥�

Auctions and spaghetti dinners

For now, teachers, parents, staff and local businesses are stepping up to fill the funding gap.

Travis Zigler, president of the Prescott Education Association and a social studies teacher, said the reason behind the financial crisis is irrelevant with the school鈥檚 future hanging in the balance. 

鈥淚 don’t even like to think about blame in this situation, because we’re just in it and we need to move forward,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his community deserves to have their school.鈥�

Zigler said he knows every kid’s name. Students in the first class he taught when he began his job five years ago are graduating in the spring. While he and the roughly 18 teachers in the union were unaware of the situation a few months ago, they鈥檙e now determined to raise the money needed to prevent dissolution.  

The union, community members, businesses and the parent-teacher organization have hosted auctions and spaghetti dinners. They鈥檝e sold nameplates for bricks on school property, partnered with restaurants for fundraisers and created a Breakfast with Santa Claus. A formal gala is scheduled for March in hopes of bringing in an additional $100,000. 

The parent-teacher organization also collected donations to restore traditional extracurricular activities that were lost to budget cuts, like a fifth grade ski summit and a band trip.

鈥淒espite what’s going on, the students are still the No. 1 priority, and we are massively focused on just continuing to provide the best education we can,鈥� Zigler said. 鈥淲e’re doing our best to be positive.鈥�

Kaleb Young, a PTO member, said he worries about how the school closing could impact students and their families, especially those from vulnerable populations. Young graduated from the Prescott School District, and his daughter is in fifth grade there. His mother is a paraprofessional, his grandmother is a bus driver and his father was on the school board for 13 years.

Prescott School District is where kids get meal assistance in the summer. Young said the school is easy to get to on foot or by bike, and kids in the classes grow up together. If the district were dissolved, he said, friend groups would be broken up and students would be scattered among various districts several miles away.

鈥淚 wish that there was more time,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e’re working with what we’ve got, and people are scrambling and rushing, and we’re doing what we can.鈥�

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