QuickTake:

The district’s second budget reduction presentation laid out the largest chunk of the district’s proposed cuts, detailing reductions to academic support programs, teacher mentorship and coaching, alternative education opportunities and administrative staffing.

A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the location of the Chinese Immersion School, which is housed at Kennedy Middle School.

Eugene School District 4J Superintendent Miriam Mickelson outlined $18 million in additional budget cuts, including up to 127 student-facing positions, at the Wednesday, Jan. 7, school board meeting.

If approved, phase two of Mickelson’s budget cut plan would eliminate 55 licensed full-time equivalents and 72 classified full-time equivalents for the next school year. This is in addition to 28 leadership positions she and the board have already decided to cut in the first phase.

The district will reduce the size of its career and technology education program due to low teacher-to-student ratios, along with cuts in academic support staff, staff at its online academy, and staff who offer mentorship, specialized knowledge and coaching to educators. The district also plans to cut administrative roles at shrinking middle schools.

“I bring this resolution to the board with a very heavy heart and acknowledge the pain and the loss that accompany these decisions,” Mickelson said after presenting the plan.

The 4J district is facing a $30 million budget shortfall due to declining enrollment, increasing personnel and contractual costs, as well as the end of COVID-19 relief money, which was funding additional staff hired in the wake of the pandemic.

The board will vote on the phase two layoffs at its Jan. 14 meeting.

The cuts and their savings

Mickelson broke down the $18 million in program cuts and leadership reductions in a detailed presentation.

Matt Brown, Eugene School District 4J finance director, and chief of staff Carmen Xiomara Urbina sit in front of the 4J School Board on Jan. 7, 2025. In the meeting, superintendent Miriam Mickelson detailed proposals for $18 million out of $30 million required budget cuts for the 2026-27 school year. Credit: Lilly St. Angelo / Lookout Eugene-Springfield

  • Staffing (saves $6.6 million): Reduction of up to 159 positions from cutting or eliminating programs. These include up to 32 leadership and nonunion professional roles and up to 127 classified and licensed positions.
  • Online school and credit-retrieval programs (saves $830,000): 
    • Eliminate the online school option for middle schoolers through Eugene Online Academy, affecting seven students currently in sixth and seventh grades
    • Staff reductions at the high school level of the online academy, which serves about 90 students 
    • Staff reductions to the High School Extended Day program, which helps credit-deficient students earn extra credits to graduate
  • Academic support and extracurriculars (saves $3.5 million):
    • Eliminate AVID, a college and career readiness program, at the middle and elementary school level, but continue to provide it in high schools
    • Eliminate additional funds for the BEST program, a state-grant-funded afterschool program for students who need extra help in reading and math at Chavez, Holt, Howard, McCornack and River Road elementary schools and at the Arts and Technology Academy, reducing staff and capacity
    • “Significantly scaled back” summer school
    • Reduction in travel for high school sports due to the Oregon Schools Activities Association’s recent redistricting
  • Career and Technology Education (saves $1.8 million): The district’s Center for Applied Learning and Community Impact will not exist next year. This includes the program’s downtown classroom space and administration. Three of its four programs will be retained with changes, however.
    • FutureBuild will be centralized at North Eugene High School, but students from all high schools can take the class and get free transportation to North. 
    • South Eugene High School will retain engineering class HumaniTech, and Sheldon will house the design program Creative Current. Both programs will only be offered to students at their respective schools. 
    • EmpowerEd, a program for students interested in becoming teachers, had the lowest participation among the four programs and was cut.
  • Nutrition services (saves $2.7 million): While other districts only rely on federal money to fund their cafeteria operations, 4J funds 32% of its nutrition services budget. Mickelson said scaling this back from $3.9 million to $1.5 million will not change students’ access to nutritious, free meals, but will cease the operation of the district’s catering program and the plans for a large production kitchen at the Ed Center.
  • Administrative consolidation (saves $830,000): The kindergarten through eighth-grade Chinese Immersion School, at Kennedy Middle School, will now share a principal with Kennedy instead of having its own. The current principal of the Chinese Immersion School, Jennifer Hebard, will become the assistant principal of both after the current assistant principal of Kennedy retires. Mickelson said two other district middle schools will have administrative cuts due to low enrollment.
  • Staff support (saves $4.4 million): The district will eliminate its centrally managed staff mentorship program and reduce the number of teachers on special assignment and instructional coaches. Some of these district-level staff will be returned to classrooms.

While these reductions total about $21 million, Matt Brown, 4J’s finance director, said the district is factoring in the possibility of paying unemployment for each employee it lays off. Brown said the district is legally obligated to pay unemployment benefits to laid-off employees for five quarters. Allowing for the possibility that all laid-off employees qualify and request benefits for five quarters, the district is allocating $22,500 per laid-off employee.

Previous budget cuts announced 

In the first phase of cuts, Mickelson eliminated three of four assistant superintendent positions and reduced budgets for tech subscriptions, professional development, school discretionary budgets, professional contracts and the district office. These reductions were detailed in the Dec. 11 meeting and totaled $2.3 million.

Three of Mickelson’s four assistant superintendents currently make $193,853 a year, and the fourth makes $179,680, according to contracts requested by Lookout Eugene-Springfield. 

At that Dec. 11 meeting, the board approved cutting up to 32 manager, director, administrator, supervisor and nonunion professional roles to give staff adequate time to start applying for jobs elsewhere. Mickelson noted that school administrator jobs tend to be posted in the winter. The superintendent said at the Jan. 7 meeting that actual reductions in leadership positions totaled 28, including the three assistant superintendent positions cut in phase one.

Mickelson’s phase three cuts will be presented Jan. 21 and include a shortened middle school schedule, additional staffing reductions due to enrollment declines and the district’s decision on the future of the Family School, an alternative elementary school on Crest Drive in south Eugene, which does not serve a specific neighborhood, but is available to families who choose to it.

“The team and I are intentionally moving Family School discussions to phase three to allow additional time for staff and family engagement,” Mickelson said. “It’s a big decision, and we are not taking it lightly, and need a little bit more time.”

Lilly is a graduate of Indiana University and has worked at the Indianapolis Star and Burlington, Vermont, as well as working as a foreign language teacher in France. She covers education and children's issues for Lookout Eugene-Springfield.