The Puyallup school district has been making difficult decisions for the ’26-’27 school year with the budget cuts that have been going on.
On February 17th, 2026, the first proposal came out talking about the closing of the PHS pool from Puyallup school district Interim Superintendent Richard Lasso.
“So, the decision to put it on there has been strictly financial,” Lasso said. “everyone understands the value of having a pool. I mean all the positive things are happening. It’s just unfortunately, when you’re in a place of budget reductions, you need to make financial decisions. And so, this has been strictly a financial decision.”
With this new proposal, Sophomore Lila Kelley, a student who has been working here at the pool for many years was confused on what to do next.
“I mean I was very sad,” Kelley said. “I was kinda panicking because I have to find a new job, and I just really like looking at the pool. So, it was definitely a sad thing.”
Like Kelly, Puyallup High School’s Principal, David Sunich, wanted to know what was going to happen now.
“My first thought was, ‘oh boy’. I began to think about what does this mean for us as a school? We’re not going to have swimming PE class anymore. We’re not going to have our swim team be able to practice here. That will create a new challenge, where to practice? Are we sharing a pool with Rogers at that point? Will the pool just sit there? Do they tear it down? I mean those are all I knew, those were all long-term kind of things that would come,” Sunich said. “And I also thought about, I know there’s going to be some people in the community, they’re really upset about this too. I knew we’ll have to wait and see if ultimately after all feedback is given, if that decision holds, or if they change their mind on that.”
However, on March 13th, 2026, Lasso presented the final proposal to not only keep the pool, but as well as other things.
“So, what didn’t change is the total amount of money that was needed to reduce, which was $15 million, when we restored some things, including the pool, that meant other things now needed to go. For example, there was an increase in the amount of central office administrators that we’re now reducing as a result of some of the adjustments that we made. So, a thing about the pool that’s important to remember is that, yes, that $4.4 million that was part of a capital expense, which is kind of a different fund of money,“ Lasso said. “The savings that was tied to everything else that we were talking about was about $300,000. And so, what we had to do toward the 15 million is come up with $300,000. Where you’re going to see the impact of that $4.4 million means that other improvements or capital projects throughout the district that were scheduled to be done, will now either be delayed, or will not be done because that money needs to be redistributed towards the pool.”
Lasso mentioned that not only was the pool saved from these budget cuts, but so was some other things.
“There was a couple things, gymnastics was also something that was in the original proposal that got removed,” Lasso said. “The original proposal had a reduction for librarians at grades four, five, and six, and that ended up being just at sixth grade, we restored fourth and fifth grade. And then we had originally reduced the deans at the junior high, a dean of students, they’re an administrator, not an assistant principal, maybe a little bit below that, they are an administrator to kind of help out. And those six were scheduled to be reduced at junior high however we restored those.”
Kelley believes that it was a good idea to keep these things around a little bit longer.
“There was relief, lots of relief,” Kelley said. “I think it’s a really important community resource people come from lots of different places and learn to swim there, and we have families who’ve been coming here for years.”
Although Sunish is happy with these things staying around a little longer, he is also concerned about the monetary impact.
“If they’re able to make it work, and if they can financially do it without, you know, the cut had to come from somewhere. And I dont think you can say one on one, we keep the pool, we have to lose this. They figured out a way to make it work, we’re happy to have it,” Sunich said. “I think the people who use it and rely on it and whose jobs are connected to it appreciate that it’s there. I do recognize the financial burden the pool brings. It’s a huge expense to the school and district, and there’s upcoming expenses, which are going to be a lot. So, I love the pool, I love that we have it, and that sort of thing. However I also worry about the value of it financially.”
However, as time goes on, the risk of these things being lost due to budget cuts may show up again in the future.
“The decision that were made, everything was in the context of the ‘26-’27 school year. Every year we go through the budget process. And depending on where revenues are, expenditures, sometimes the legislature makes changes, and we have to respond to those,” Lasso said. “So, it’s too early to tell, however I can say that those changes were just for ‘26-’27. The deficit that we’re facing is at a minimum part of a larger structural deficit that has to do with how schools are funded at the state level. And until that gets fixed, I do believe that school districts, not just ours, are going to have to continue to have these conversations and make difficult choices.”
