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Board members praised collaborative efforts that went into a difficult budget process this year. Administrators also announced changes to try to ease some of the staffing and programming effects of the cuts.
The Eugene School District 4J School Board adopted the district’s 2026-27 budget at a work session Wednesday, May 27.
The unanimous vote to adopt the $531.9 million budget, reflecting a 5.2% reduction in spending, is the result of a yearlong public decision-making and grief process.
“It’s been hard, it’s been long, and we’ve spent a lot of the year on it,” said board member Judy Newman before the vote. “And I think it probably was the right thing to do, so we could get it as right as we could get it.”
Starting last fall, district leaders provided information about the need for budget reductions and collected feedback. The board approved the initially projected $30 million (ultimately $27.7 million) in general fund cuts over the winter. The district cut 265 full-time equivalent positions, issuing layoff notices to 177 employees.
But the district’s discovery of projection errors in March led to Superintendent Miriam Mickelson’s announcement the district would use one-time funds to bridge an additional gap of $16.4 million, which is now the district’s structural deficit. This means the district is planning to spend $16.4 million more than it receives in revenue. With reserves just above the board-required minimum, the district will need to make significant additional cuts next year.
Community-inspired tweaks
Schools in 4J will incur losses from the 2026-27 budget reductions, but administrators shared some bright spots from recent changes.
Brooke Wagner, assistant superintendent of administrative services, said after some strategic planning and reallocation of funds, the district was able to keep more elementary specialist teachers at their current posts. More than 80% of elementary media specialists and more than 90% of elementary physical education and music specialists will retain their current school site as one of their assignments next year. Previously, Wagner reported that more than 50% of elementary specialists would retain their current assignment.
Sebastian Bolden, director of secondary schools, reported that after engaging with middle school students and teachers, 4J will make several changes to help students retain access to electives following the decision to cut one of the two current elective periods.
Next year, middle school students will have three flex periods a week and one advisory period. Students who must take a full-period special education class in accordance with their Individualized Education Plan will be able to opt out of P.E. “when appropriate and aligned with individual student needs and family choice.”
Bolden said the district is coordinating with the Oregon Department of Education to make this exception to the state-mandated P.E. requirement. Students in special education can still choose to use their one elective period for P.E.
The district also is working to ensure English language learners in middle school have elective time. The district will pilot a program next year integrating language learning into core classes for intermediate language learners, meaning these students won’t spend an elective period in English language development. Schools will use flexible scheduling to provide less experienced English language learners elective or enrichment activity options as well, Bolden said.
All language-immersion students will have access to an elective period. Some students previously had one elective period that was taken up by immersion requirements.
‘A collaborative spirit’
Board member Maya Rabasa praised Bolden for his student engagement. Rabasa’s daughter, a middle school student in 4J, was in one of the discussions Bolden had with students about scheduling.
“She left it saying, ‘I have really smart friends. My friends have really good ideas,’” Rabasa said. “It was that opportunity that you carved out for her to witness her friends solving what they think of as ‘adult problems’ — beautiful.”
Newman and other board members acknowledged the time and effort district administrators took for feedback and to look at alternatives.
“People brought things to our attention that might be useful solutions, and we had the time to at least go down that path and listen and check things out, and I think we have some better strategies as a result,” Newman said. “I just want to thank everyone. It would have been easy to be defensive or say, no, this is the way we’ve done it.”
Board member Jenny Jonak closed with appreciation for the “collaborative spirit” in the district in light of the need for more cuts next year.
