Forest Grove budget committee approves tax levies and outlines $1.8 million in reductions as state revenue falls

Forest Grove School District 15—s budget committee met on May 15, 2025, and after a detailed staff presentation on state revenue revisions and district enrollment declines approved tax measures and heard staff describe an $1,800,000 reduction plan and staffing adjustments to align spending with lower projected state revenues.

District finance staff told the committee that a new Oregon revenue forecast released May 14 projects substantially less state revenue than earlier estimates. "The state is projecting $800,000,000 less than they projected in March," Director Klute said, adding that corporate activity tax receipts were revised down by about $44,000,000 and state reserves by roughly $400,000,000. "For us, we are unlikely to get more than 11,400,000,000.0 in the state school fund," Klute said.

The forecast and continued enrollment declines, staff said, underpin a conservative budget approach for 2025-26. District staff explained that the proposed budget package includes a targeted $1,800,000 in reductions and specific full-time-equivalent (FTE) staffing adjustments: an $8-FTE reduction among licensed staff tied directly to enrollment declines and an 11-FTE reduction in classified instructional-assistant (IA) FTE rolled into the general-fund reductions. Director Klute said the district is relying on turnover, not mass layoffs: "We are not renewing vacants, temporary positions. So those contracts, they terminate in June every year anyway," Klute said.

Staff described how the district reached the $1.8 million target by starting with a five-year long-range forecast, identifying commitments and strategic priorities to preserve, and then selecting reductions that minimize instructional harm. On curriculum and instruction, the presentation flagged a line-item reduction (shown as roughly $86,000 in the materials) and additional reductions that managers described as spread across adoption pacing, professional learning and the innovation fund. "Adoptions that are delayed do require the Department of Education to approve that delay. We have to submit a waiver and then the department has to say, yes," Klute said; staff noted such delays are a one-time savings and require a plan to return to compliance.

The committee asked multiple questions about how FTE numbers map to individual employees (FTE versus heads), the role of Title- and federal-funded positions, and whether cuts would change schools unevenly. Staff explained the district report shows a 10-year pattern: district enrollment down about 6% while total classified FTE grew about 56% across funding streams, and the current reductions are intended to rebalance staffing between buildings. Staff said many instructional assistants work 6.5-hour schedules, so small FTE adjustments often represent changes to hours or not renewing added temporary hours rather than immediate separations.

Committee members and staff discussed contingencies if the state school fund is lower than the forecast. "This budget is a best estimate based on what we know at this point in time," Klute said. She and other staff said the adopted budget sets maximum appropriations; if the final state allocation is reduced, the district would make internal adjustments and could spend below adopted limits rather than exceed available revenue.

Staff also summarized federal and nutrition resources: federal resources were presented as about 4.5% of total district resources (approximately $10.8 million), with roughly $2.7 million in federal support for food services; the district—s total nutrition budget was presented as just over $4,000,000. Staff said they were not seeing immediate federal cuts to child nutrition at the time of the meeting but were monitoring developments.

After discussion, the committee completed roll-call votes on the measures presented. A motion to adopt the recommended budget (motion 1) passed. The committee then approved a permanent ad valorem tax rate of $4.9142 per $1,000 of full property value as determined by the Washington County Tax Assessor (motion 2). The committee also approved levying $13,587,300 in ad valorem taxes for debt service (motion 3). Roll-call votes recorded at the meeting show the votes on the tax and levy measures as unanimous among the present committee members.

The budget committee chair and staff reminded members that the committee—s formal review role for this cycle was complete and that if the final state school-fund numbers fall short of the forecast staff will return to the district with internal adjustment scenarios. Staff said they would continue to monitor resignations, retirements and vacancies over the summer and would avoid posting positions until necessary to meet the district—s staffing targets. The meeting ended with staff thanking committee members for volunteer time and staff stewardship of a conservative budget path.

Ending: The budget committee was adjourned at about 6:55 p.m.; staff and the committee noted they will provide quarterly financial reports and said the board will act on final budget items after the committee—s recommendation and the close of the legislative session.