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QuickTake:
Springfield’s school district is dealing with the same budget pressures as 4J and Bethel: increased costs and loss of federal COVID funding. But Springfield administrators expect the district's enrollment decline to flatten out in the fall.
The Springfield Board of Education voted unanimously to adopt the district’s $266.2 million 2025-26 budget Monday night after a budget planning process that included little public participation.
The budget cuts 4.48% or $3.7 million in spending, compared to last year’s budget. The upcoming year budget will reduce staffing by a net of 38.46 full-time equivalent positions, the majority of which will be licensed staff.
Springfield is facing the same challenges other local districts are grappling with, including the end to COVID-era federal funding, declining enrollment, an increase in retirement fund contributions and other rising costs. According to chief operations officer Brett Yancey, class sizes will grow amid staff cuts.
Pandemic-era staffing levels no longer sustainable
For the 2024-25 school year, Springfield schools spent $7.5 million more than they received in revenue, which they covered with their reserve funds or “fund balance.”
To account for the increases in costs the district saw last year, it added a net $8.2 million to its general fund budget, while reducing the budgets of its other funds by $11.9 million, much of which was due to the loss of federal pandemic grants. The end of COVID-era grants in September 2024 accounted for a loss of $10 million in funding.
The federal grants during and after the pandemic years allowed Springfield and many other districts to hire more staff. Now, the district cannot sustain these positions.
“We’ve seen a reduction in students and we’ve seen an increase in staff over some of the years as well and we’re no longer able to sustain this,” Yancey said.
Brian Richardson, director of communications and community engagement for Springfield schools, said the district will use “retirements and vacancies to address the reduction in staff.”
Here is the breakdown of cuts and additions of full-time equivalents by staff category. (A single FTE might equal more than one staff member, due to part-time positions.)
- Certified: 39.67 fewer FTE.
- Classified: 0.79 fewer FTE.
- Administrative: 2 more FTE.
In the administrative ranks, the district is adding two elementary assistant principals.
Budget cuts do not account for any cost of living adjustments that the district might make during teacher contract negotiations, which are continuing. If the contract increases teacher salaries, these expenses must be added to the budget and will likely lead to more staffing cuts, according to Yancey.
Springfield School District’s ending fund balance, the district’s reserves, is projected to be 6.4% of its overall budget, greater than the 4% its policy requires.
Enrollment trends
Springfield’s enrollment numbers are projected to rise slightly compared to last year. The district expects 35 more students to enroll than last year, a 0.37% increase, after six consecutive years of declines. This is in contrast to projections for Eugene School District 4J and Bethel School District, which are expected to see continued enrollment declines.
“We’re cautious about it, obviously, as you’ve seen a steady decline over several years,” said Yancey at the May 8 budget committee meeting. “We’re going to really pay attention, like OK, we’ll see if that really happens in the fall.”
Enrollment increases, however, are not expected on the kindergarten level. The incoming kindergarten class will be the smallest it has been in the past 10 years, at 576 students. Both Bethel and 4J are expecting similar trends with their incoming kindergarten classes.
The slight uptick in enrollment expected this fall in Springfield will not cancel out declines in state funding for the district.
Because state funding runs on a two-year budgeting schedule, also known as a biennium, funding is determined every two years based on changes to student enrollment since the last biennium. Since the fall of 2023, enrollment in the Springfield public schools system has decreased by 174 students.
Public response
Springfield’s budget committee met three times from January to March for budget work sessions, informational meetings where committee members learned more information about the district’s budget. The public was not allowed to give input at these meetings.
At the May 8 budget committee meeting, which was open to public comment, one person spoke: Cliff Schutte, a Springfield School District employee of 25 years and an eighth-grade math teacher at Agnes Stewart Middle School.
Schutte asked the committee to ask hard questions about where money was being allocated within the budget and avoid cuts at the classroom level as much as possible.
“When you start making adjustments at the school level, things get yucky really fast,” Schutte said to the committee. “It becomes even more of a struggle than it already is today.”
No speakers made comments during Monday’s 15-minute budget hearing that took place before the regular board meeting. However, a Springfield High School English teacher, Laura Farrelly, spoke during the public comment portion of the board meeting about her her concerns about cuts to positions for teachers and educational assistants.
“Currently, our district is cutting about 40 certified positions due to a decline in student enrollment, which begs the question, ‘Where are the cuts to administrative jobs, which we all know cost way more money than teacher or EA positions?’” Farrelly said.
