Springfield, 4J had big drops in student enrollment this school year

According to new data, the number of Eugene and Springfield children enrolled in public schools is decreasing more rapidly than ever.

Counts of students on Oct.1 in Eugene School District 4J, Springfield Public Schools and Bethel School District revealed lower-than-expected enrollment. 

Of the three districts, Eugene 4J had the largest drop, compared to last year: Enrollment was down 4%. Springfield registered a 3.8% drop. Bethel’s student population dropped by 2.5% this year.

According to records, 4J’s enrollment drop is its largest in a single year according to available data going back to 1990. And it’s Springfield’s largest since 2020, an anomaly of a year due to the pandemic.

The number of students in public schools is declining statewide, but declines aren’t even. Some districts — Eugene, Bethel and Springfield included — are shrinking at a faster rate than the state average. These districts, as a result, receive less money, one of the reasons districts are strapped for cash.

Fewer students also means emptier schools. Other large Oregon districts, including Salem-Keizer and Portland Public, have already announced plans for multiple school closures this year. Bethel has closed two schools in the past two years, and 4J this year consolidated Family School and Camas Ridge Community School into one building.

Local districts have yet to decide whether there will be closures at the end of this academic year.

Districts are also grappling with their role in the enrollment decline. In addition to rising costs of living, causing families to have fewer children or move to less expensive places, data shows that since the pandemic a higher percentage of families are choosing homeschooling and virtual public charter schools than before.

4J waits to see bigger financial picture

Despite the loss of 629 students this year, Kelly McIver, 4J director of communications, said in a statement the district has no school closures planned for the end of the year.

“The topic may come up from the public or even the board as the economic projections develop between now and the spring, because there are still many unknowns that may affect that financial picture,” McIver said.

The unknowns McIver referenced are significant. The state Legislature will meet in January for a long session, during which it will determine school funding for the next two years.

School districts will not have a solid estimate of their funding until late spring. Eugene 4J is also bargaining with its teachers union starting this spring, making staffing costs another question mark. 

There is little to indicate the district will receive enough money to close their structural deficit, however, which is the difference between 4J’s funding and its operational costs. The district has filled this gap by dipping into reserves for several years in a row.

“When shortfalls grow, closure and consolidation are steps to be considered for savings, especially if enrollment is trending down for the long term,” McIver said. “There are multiple factors however in looking at schools that might be closed or consolidated, including the age and condition of the building, proximity to other schools and how the district would manage attendance boundaries upon closure.”

Springfield preps for hard conversations 

Springfield has not announced plans for closing a school this year, but leaders have begun conversations.

“Nothing specifically is ‘off’ or ‘on’ the table,” Interim Superintendent Shawn Stover said in an email when asked whether the district was considering a closure this year. “We first have to define the problem and then accurately frame it before we can even think about solving it.”

Under board direction, district administrators will soon create a “facilities advisory committee,” a group of 15 to 25 people that will include district employees, board members, parents and community members. The committee will be tasked with looking at enrollment data and school properties and making recommendations to the board about closures, consolidations, repurposing, renovations and boundary changes.

The timeline of when the district will convene the committee and when members will present their recommendations to the board, however, is unclear. Stover said in a Sept. 28 board meeting having a longer process that includes opportunities for the community to give feedback will give the district more community buy-in in the event of a school closure. 

Board member Ken Kohl asked Stover directly in the same meeting if now was the time to start considering a school closure.

“I think we’re getting closer to the time we need to seriously consider options,” Stover answered.

According to data from September 2025, some of Springfield’s elementary schools are operating well below their capacity, reflecting their smaller cohorts of students each year.

Maple Elementary, for example, was at a little less than half capacity last year, with 246 students. But just because a school isn’t filling its classrooms doesn’t mean it will be on the chopping block. Newer buildings, like Maple, will be preserved over older buildings and boundary lines could be redrawn.

Stover also said the committee will be considering “strategic ways to maximize district capital resources like banked land.” Board member Bob Brew has voiced the idea of developing unused district land into affordable housing to attract more families.

Springfield Public Schools owns 478 acres, according to its 2025 audit report. Schools and district facilities sit on about 75% of the district’s total acreage, and 126 acres of “other property” make up the rest. Part of the district’s total acreage is Sky Camp, a 100-acre retreat and event center in Fall Creek that the district previously used for outdoor education.

The ‘why’ behind enrollment decline

A continuously declining birthrate plays a large role in the enrollment problem. But there are other factors at play.

Courtney Steed, a Springfield parent and former public school educator, spoke at the Oct. 12 board meeting about her decision to pull her daughter out of Springfield Public Schools.

Now a fourth-grader, the girl had fallen two grades behind in math, Steed said. She called on the district to lower class sizes, improve early math intervention and communicate better with parents.

“I’m not here because I’ve given up on public schools,” Steed said. “I’m here because I haven’t. I want to bring my children back to SPS.
I want to be able to say our district listens to families, addresses concerns, and makes meaningful changes, and I want other families to have the support they need, so they don’t have to make the difficult decision that my family has done to leave public education. Please give us a reason to come back.”

In Lane County, the number of homeschooling families doubled from 2014 to 2024. Virtual charter schools have also grown. According to reporting from the Oregonian and Oregon Public Broadcasting, the percentage of students in virtual charters increased from 2% of Oregon’s student population in 2016 to 5% in 2025.

Jonathan Light, chair of the Springfield school board, thinks school closures should be a last resort. He wants the district to focus on getting families who left to come back to Springfield.

The district lost 19.2% of its student population from 2015 to 2025, which is triple the state average decline of 6.4% during the same period. Eugene 4J lost 8.9% and Bethel lost 13% of their students during that 10-year stretch.

Stover, who has coined the phrase “enrollment is our hustle” since coming to Springfield, doesn’t disagree. He also sees some of the reasons behind enrollment decline — affordability and family choices — as out of the district’s control.

“I prefer to start with what we can control,” he wrote in an email. “If enrollment truly is our hustle, we would be foolish to ignore the trends we are seeing and not reach out to families (both those that chose SPS and those that chose other options) to understand why they made their choice…we have to be honest with ourselves that education is a changing marketplace where families have lots of options.”

He wants to get creative about how Springfield serves its families with the buildings they have, which may mean repurposing them. Bethel School District now houses after-school care and preschools in two of its decommissioned schools. Stover threw out ideas of a hybrid in-person/online school and themed micro schools.

He wants students, especially those thinking about post-graduation plans, to see their education as engaging and relevant.

When asked whether 4J is looking into why students may be leaving district schools and whether it was worth 4J’s time to try to win them back, McIver said: “The district is looking into movement out of and into the district and examining what role retention and recruitment could play.”