QuickTake:

The budget proposal calls for cutting three full-time equivalent positions and closing Shasta Middle School at the end of the current school year. The full school board still needs to vote on it.

The Bethel School District Budget Committee unanimously approved the district’s $164 million budget on Wednesday, May 13 — a slight reduction from the previous year.

The budget proposal, which now goes to the Bethel School Board for final approval, calls for cutting three full-time equivalent positions and closing Shasta Middle School at the end of the current school year. In addition, four vacant positions in business services, technology, facilities and nutrition services will not be filled.

Bethel will use almost $800,000 of its contingency fund next year to continue to employ Shasta Middle School teachers as the building closes, and therefore “overstaff” the middle school level. The district is projected to end this year with an ending fund balance of $9.8 million. The balance is 13.4% of its general fund, about $800,000 more than the district had projected it would end the year with.

Bethel Business Services Director Andrea Belz told Lookout Eugene-Springfield that one main reason Bethel’s budget woes are smaller than nearby districts is because its pension “side account” is not phasing out like other districts.

Side accounts are investment accounts from which dividends help pay for a districts’ portion of their pension payments. While other districts opened their accounts in the early 2000s, Bethel opened its account in 2021.

Superintendent Kraig Sproles also credited the school board for making the decisions in 2024 and 2025 to close Clear Lake Elementary School and Shasta Middle School, early moves to reduce operational costs that have helped the district avoid laying off staff as personnel costs rose and enrollment declined.

“The decisions made in this room in the last five years have set us up to be able to be where we’re at today,” said Sproles. “We can tee it up and we can tell you what we think, but the decisions made in here have real life implications on the rest of our community. So I do appreciate the courageous leadership around this table.”

There was no public comment during the meeting.

Bethel’s ‘strategic investments’

Administrators explained some of the most important investments included in the 2026-27 budget.

Among other curriculum adoptions, the district will pay $60,000 for interim assessments made by the company Star Renaissance for second-through-11th grade students. Students will take three interim assessments next year in math and English language arts before the state’s standardized test.

The tests are a new requirement under the 2025 Education Accountability Act, also known as Senate Bill 141. The district is also required to present interim assessments results to the board three times a year.

Administrators at the meeting spoke about how they’ve invested in middle schoolers, who have reported lower levels of belonging in district surveys.

The district is continuing middle school sports — such as basketball, volleyball and track — which drew 725 participants this year, at a cost of $40,650. This year, the district also created a period of the day dedicated to clubs, music, art and social skills learning, a structure they will continue this coming year.

The district will also continue funding paid stipends for 35 student affinity group leaders across all schools.

Bethel is completing its first year of integrating K-5 students who receive special education into their neighborhood schools, starting with only kindergarten. The district invested $864,141 in an inclusion specialist, kindergarten educational assistants, inclusion training and a University of Oregon professor who helped with the process.

Next year, the district will continue investing in these supports and add more special education educational assistants to elementary schools as inclusion efforts continue.

“We have students in our classrooms now, who, in previous years, wouldn’t have been there,” said Evan Rindy, assistant director of special services. “They’re being successful in our kindergarten classrooms, and it’s really exciting to see.”

Other happenings at the meeting

The Bethel School Board met after the budget committee. Highlights included:

  • The district equity committee presented to the board what student and staff committee members discussed over the course of the school year. They had three recommendations to the board: Lean on the equity committee to create shared language, norms and transparency that center belonging; have board members complete a diversity, equity and inclusion training and consider additional trainings for staff members; and better define how the board interacts with the equity committee.
  • The board adopted new social studies K-12 curricula for elementary, middle and high school levels. Dan Hedberg, director of secondary education, said 31 teachers and administrators were involved in selecting the curricula over the past few months. They will use Gibbs Smith Education materials for elementary, Teachers Curriculum Institute textbooks for middle school and McGraw Hill textbooks for high school. Together, the curricula will cost the district about $465,000 for a six-year period.
  • The board green-lighted Sproles to begin drawing up two long-term lease agreements: one with Preschool Promise for the Clear Lake Community Center and another with the Boys & Girls Club of Emerald Valley for the Shasta Middle School Building. The Boys & Girls Club’s Bethel location is currently in the Clear Lake Community Center, but will switch buildings and expand their capacity in the Shasta building over the summer. Preschool Promise will also be able to expand their available spots in the Clear Lake building. While lease agreements are usually handled by the administration and not the board, Sproles said the district is looking at a 20-year relationship with the groups and therefore wanted the board to weigh in.
  • Board member Ashley Espinoza resigned because she was moving to a different school district. The board is now taking applications for her seat, which are due June 5 by 5 p.m. The board will interview candidates June 10. The prospective board member will serve a year-long term and if they wish to continue, must run in the 2027 primary election.

Lilly is a graduate of Indiana University and has worked as a journalist 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.