With difficult budget cuts on the horizon, school districts will present plans early

Miriam Mickelson faced a small crowd at an informational budget meeting on Oct. 30 and spoke plainly. 

“I want to acknowledge the weight of this conversation,” the Eugene School District 4J superintendent said to about 10 parents, teachers and support staff gathered in the South Eugene High School library. “There’s a very real human impact when we do budget reductions — people, co-workers, members of our work family, friends who care very deeply about 4J.”

The gathering was the eighth of nine in-person and virtual meetings the district has had in October and early November about the realities of 4J’s pocket book.

And that reality is grim: The district has a $30 million budget shortfall this year and the necessary cuts will not be pretty.

School districts statewide are dealing with deficits due to declining enrollment, the end of COVID-era relief funding, rising employee costs and inadequate state funding. Some, such as Reynolds School District in Multnomah County, which announced $25 million in cuts in the spring, made hard decisions months ago. Others, including Eugene and Springfield districts, are currently spending down reserves.

In seven months, with reserves dwindling, there will be no option to delay cuts again. Local districts will be forced to cut staff and possibly close schools. The 4J and Bethel school districts are trying to mitigate disappointment with early budget planning.

4J’s phased presentation approach

Mickelson has already announced the first planned cuts, and they are within her own office. Next year, she will consolidate 4J’s four assistant superintendent positions into one position and delegate some additional responsibilities to her chief of staff and chief operating officer. 

“This is one of the most difficult decisions I’ve had to make,” Mickelson said in a statement. “Each of these remarkable leaders has given more than 30 years of their lives to public education — many of those years right here in Eugene School District 4J.”

The new assistant superintendent position will be open to the four current assistant superintendents: Larry Williams, Kat Lange, Brooke Wagner and Juan Carlos Cuadros. The administrator who is retained will oversee student and staff programs including teaching and learning, special education and human resources.

Mickelson will present these three position cuts to the 4J School Board in December as a part of Phase 1 of her budget plan rollout. But she can make this decision without board approval because the positions are executive leadership roles and fall under her purview, not the board’s. Nonpersonnel cuts also fall within the superintendent’s purview. She will present all proposed reductions at board meetings from December through February, each meeting about different staff groups:

• Phase One (Dec. 3 and Dec. 10 board meetings): Cuts to executive level staff
• Phase Two (Jan. 7 and Jan. 14 board meetings): Cuts to principals, directors, managers, nonunion professionals and programs. This phase would include any official school closure proposals, although staff would be notified in November or December.
• Phase Three (Jan. 21 and Feb. 4 board meetings): Cuts to licensed and classified staff, which include most of the student-facing positions in the district.

The official budget adoption process, starting in the budget committee and moving to the school board, will play out as usual from April through May with a required public hearing. The district already received 1,420 responses to a now-closed community survey about budget decisions. Responses can be viewed on the ThoughtExchange page.

In Bethel, long-range planning

In Bethel School District, superintendent Kraig Sproles is taking a different approach to the early presentation of budget cuts. 

Sproles formed a superintendent committee, which is not required to meet publicly, to formulate a long-range plan for the district, focused on “middle school programming.”

The Long Range Planning Team has 23 members, representing classified and licensed staff, parents, community members, the equity committee, the school board, unions and administrators. The team started meeting in the spring and will present its plan to the Bethel School Board at its Nov. 10 meeting.

“We’re looking at enrollment trends, district financial assumptions, we’re looking at current building usage, focusing on middle school, to make planning recommendations,” Sproles said in a Sept. 24 school board meeting.

Mid-year state funding cuts

Looming large in all school districts across Oregon is the possibility of midyear reductions to state funding.

The Big Beautiful Bill, passed in Congress this summer, will reduce tax revenue the state will receive on the state and federal level and may affect funding for K-12 schools.

Oregon’s Legislative Fiscal Office is working with all state departments to prepare a list of 1%-5% in midyear spending cuts for the Legislature’s consideration in this winter’s short session. This could include cuts to the State School Fund. There may also be cuts to other state education funding sources including the Student Investment Account, the High School Success grant and the Early Literacy Grant. These fund school counselors, P.E. and music teachers, career technical education teachers and literacy coaches. The next revenue forecast that will better determine needed cuts will be Nov. 19. There will be an additional forecast in February before the Legislature makes budget decisions.

For Bethel School District, every 1% cut to their State School Fund money is equivalent to four teachers or two days of classroom time according to Andrea Belz, Bethel’s business services director.

There are some safety nets, however. During the short session this winter, the state Legislature could dip into the Rainy Day Fund or the Education Stability Fund, both with over a billion dollars in savings, to cover gaps in State School Fund allocations if certain budget triggers are met.

Clarification: This story has been updated with clarifying language about state funding and when Mickelson will announce proposed director cuts.