Springfield Board of Education approves midyear teacher cuts

Springfield Board of Education members voted Tuesday, Jan. 12, to make midyear cuts to teachers and other licensed staff, laying off 27 full-time equivalents due to projected cost of a new union contract.

Board chair Heather Quaas-Annsa and members Ken Kohl and Nicole De Graff voted in favor of the $2.34 million reduction, while vice chair Amber Langworthy and member Jonathan Light voted against. The not-yet-identified high school, middle school and district-level employees will be laid off at the end of January, when the district’s semester ends.

“It feels like we’re between a rock and a hard place that we’re trying to balance what we do for the kids this year versus future classes of kids and how they’re impacted,” Kohl said. “I’m not sure there’s a win here.”

Why cuts are being made

Superintendent Todd Hamilton announced the need to cut positions midyear in a Jan. 8 email to staff, saying the district did not have the funds to sustain current licensed staffing levels because they hadn’t budgeted for any increase to pay and benefits. The district did not want to assume what would come out of bargaining, administrators have said.

Brett Yancey, chief operations officer, spoke Monday about the specific meetings where he or other administrators told board members that any cost-of-living increase would lead to staff cuts. 

“Contrary to what people believe, this is what has put Springfield in a very strong financial position over decades: We are very conscious about not spending one-time resources on ongoing expenses,” Yancey said.
”We live within our means, and when we are projecting to exceed our means, we make those adjustments so they’ll continue living within our means.”

Details of how and when staff reductions would happen, however, remained unclear until Jan. 8, Langworthy said.

The district’s attorney, Rebekah Jacobson, said there may be legal ramifications if the board does not approve the cuts because the district already made a cost-of-living increase proposal to the union.

“If the district withdraws an offer that’s already been made, that’s the problem,” Jacobson said. “It could be seen as aggressive bargaining if you do not approve the reduction in force proposal tonight.”

Union president Jonathan Gault said he was discouraged and could not remember a time when midyear cuts were necessary in his nearly 30 years of teaching.

“It seems to me that there ought to have been much more effort on the part of leadership getting the public input,” Gault said. “While the door was open, this was not enough, in my opinion.”

Public reactions

More than 250 audience members attended the meeting Monday night, sitting on the floor, standing in margins and spilling into a hallway to watch the meeting and cheer on speakers. Eight people spoke during public comment, including Springfield parent Matt Brandt.

“I go to school; I volunteer,” Brandt said. “Classrooms are overloaded, man. Losing teachers is not going to help. It’s a vicious cycle. We lose teachers, it leads to oversized classes, oversized classes lead to behavioral problems, behavioral problems lead to bullying, bullying leads to parents feeling like their needs aren’t being met, kids don’t feel like they’re supported, they unenroll. Unenrollment leads to budget shortfalls.”

Brandt advocated for the school board to vote to put a levy on the ballot in the next election and called for board members to use reserve funds.

Devon Lawson, 19, spoke with Lookout Eugene-Springfield after the meeting as a former Springfield public schools student. Lawson ran for the Lane Community College Board of Education last year.

“Teachers have always been there to do their best to support me, and they’re just kind and loving, and they do their best to support us students,” Lawson said. “Hearing that my teachers, some of them whom actually taught me, will be fired, made me cry.”

He said he will likely help gather signatures for Ky Fireside, who is drafting a recall petition for Kohl, Quaas-Annsa and De Graff. Fireside spoke at the Jan. 12 meeting and is running for Oregon’s 7th District House seat, currently held by Rep. John Lively, D-Springfield.

Lawson plans to run for Springfield Board of Education against Ken Kohl in 2027.