Schools around the country losing federal funding for programs.

As Eugene School District 4J makes a plan for implementing up to $25 million in budget cuts for the 2025-2026 school year, district employees are expressing their frustration for proposed cuts due to the negative impact they will have on staff and students.

The district announced its proposal with the involved cuts on March 1, attributing the decision to declining enrollment rates, loss of COVID relief funds, and rising staffing costs. This year, the district says they are using $30 million in reserve funds to make it through the year, which will not be sustainable for next year. Over the next month, the budget committee and school board will finalize their plan for a shift in expenses with supplies, operational costs and possible staffing changes.

Some students at South may have heard news about the changing budget as teachers get news of shifting allocations for next year, but most students likely don’t know the reasons for the cuts or details of the changes which are largely due to their own lowering numbers.

4J has lost more than 1,000 students since 2020, and is projected to lose 600 more by 2029. In total, this adds up to 1,600 lost students, a figure higher than the current number of students that attend South. Since the district is funded on a per-student basis, this means state funding for its programs has been dramatically reduced, and reserve funds can no longer meet the needs of schools.

Eugene School District 4J isn’t the only district facing these challenges: Portland Public Schools, the largest school district in Oregon, will have to absorb $40 million worth of cuts to their budget. In fact, declining K-12 public school enrollment is occurring across the U.S., with 18 states experiencing enrollment declines even before the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The primary reason for this problem is that the U.S. birth rate has been in decline since 2008. As modern families struggle with work-life balance, women gain more bodily autonomy, and Americans view future economic conditions with uncertainty, families are having fewer kids. For 4J, this means fewer kids living in communities where they would go into 4J schools. In Eugene, housing costs are also rising, making it hard for people to move into the district.

When the COVID-19 outbreak hit, the problem worsened. Public school enrollment dropped by 1.2 million across the country, and many parents decided to switch their kids to online school or to homeschool them. It was harder for public school districts to find a way to educate kids safely and effectively outside of the school building with no prior experience, and they weren’t able to initiate big changes quickly. Many students in Eugene began taking classes through the Eugene Online Academy, a local online alternative. Once schools were able to return to in-person learning, some families chose to stick with alternative methods, and while enrollment numbers recovered slightly, they never returned to pre-pandemic levels.

The district was also assisted during this time by federal pandemic relief aid known as ESSER (Elementary and Secondary Emergency Relief) funds, which schools used to boost learning by adding more support staff. These positions were mainly for mental health support and individualized student help. The money was also able to help pay for supplies for returning to in-person school and to offset rising staffing costs. These emergency funds ended this year, contributing to the need for a revised budget plan.

Colt Gill, 4J’s interim superintendent, explained the objective of the new budget in an interview with KVAL News. 

“The goal is to limit impacts on students through their budget values framework, which focuses on increasing equitable outcomes, student and staff safety, and engaging the community,” he said. “When we’re making reductions, we will reduce things that are as far away from those three goals as possible, so less impact on students, less impact on the classroom. If we go forward with these reductions, and it’s somewhere between 15 and 25 million dollars, the focus will be first on things that are not related to staffing.”

Gill explained that the district isn’t expecting to lay off any staff involuntarily to meet these cuts, and will instead rely on attrition, or taking advantage of planned retirements and resignations to reduce positions. However, there may still be internal shifts for 4J staff. 

“Some employees may need to transition to different schools, programs or roles,” Gill stated. “We know these reductions will have an impact, and we do not take them lightly.” 

PERS, or the Public Employee Retirement System, is an important retirement savings plan where employees and their employers contribute a percentage of their income towards their retirement. Right now, PERS costs are rising for Oregon retirement. This affects teachers because the system requires them to contribute a portion of their salary to the system as well as the school district. This is another factor that is very distressing for staff to face as they deal with possible changes to their positions. District staff are also concerned that the district isn’t prioritizing classroom consistency over district office positions.

The Eugene chapter of the Oregon State Employees’ Association (OSEA) held a protest in March for parity in cuts to administrative staff.

Lisa Jenkins-Easton, the president of OSEA, stated that “the impacts of moving staff around is going to destabilize our system. Connections and care of trusted adults will vanish for many of our students.” 

One of their main concerns is the consolidating of funds at the district office level that aren’t necessary. 

“As schools receive news about the loss of licensed and classified positions in buildings, positions that directly support students day in and day out, we are not yet hearing about how the district office is absorbing any of the planned reductions,” said Sabrina Gordon, president of the Eugene Education Association teachers’ union. She argued the seven assistant superintendent roles being renewed for next year can’t be necessary, when compared to the drastic reduction of programs that help students directly in classrooms.

“I think our school board is often misinformed about the reality in schools,” Jenkins-Easton concluded.

Article by Alaya Drummond