QuickTake:

The extra time will allow administrators to examine budget projections to help inform decisions about trimming the school district’s general fund by another $10 million to $20 million. The budget committee will now hold its first meeting on April 8.

Eugene School District 4J has postponed its first budget committee meeting until April 8, and administrators will use the extra time to sort through financial projections.

The first budget committee meeting had been scheduled for March 31.

The district announced last week that administrators’ initial budget projections for the 2026-27 school year were off significantly. 4J will need to shave off $10 million to $20 million more on top of the $30 million in cuts already announced. All cuts will be made to 4J’s general fund, which was nearly $300 million this year. The district’s total budget is about $560 million.

“School finance, particularly in Oregon, is complex and involves variables that are often outside of our control,” 4J Superintendent Miriam Mickelson said in a statement released Monday, March 23. “At the same time, this situation makes clear that we must continue to review, refine, and strengthen our internal systems and practices to be responsive to current variables such as declining enrollment and inflation.”

Mickelson has been clear that she does not intend to cut more than the 269 full-time staff positions that the board approved for reductions this past winter. Previously, the district had left 19 positions for wiggle room, planning to cut 250 full-time equivalents, 4J communications director Kelly McIver said. Now Mickelson plans to cut the full 269. The district’s budget for this school year lists 2,243 full-time equivalent positions. 

The superintendent has also said that school closures are not on the table, nor are additional schedule changes beyond planned middle school changes. Statements from the district have said its finance team is looking at one-time measures like fund transfers to cover the additional budget shortfall.

The April 8 budget committee meeting will take place at 6 p.m. at the district office, 200 N. Monroe St. 

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