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Beaverton explains staffing allocation model: weighted enrollment meant to direct resources to higher‑need schools
Summary
At the March 11 Budget 101 session, budget manager Jessica Jones and associate superintendent Michael Scofield described the district’s SAM model, including 1.25 elementary and 1.5 high‑school weighting and annual adjustments to address class‑size issues.
Beaverton School District staff walked the budget committee through the district’s staffing allocation methodology (SAM) on March 11, explaining how the model uses weighted enrollment to allocate classroom teachers, counselors and other school‑level staffing.
Budget manager Jessica Jones told the committee the district assigns weights to enrollment counts so that schools serving higher percentages of students experiencing poverty receive additional staff. She said elementary schools receive a 1.25 weight and high schools a 1.5 weight in the current model. "So after we do the math, at a 1.25 weight, we would actually allocate resource to this school on 531 students," Jones said in an example of a 500‑student elementary school.
Why it matters: the SAM model is the district’s baseline for spring budget allocations and drives how many full‑time staff are placed at each school. Jones and Associate Superintendent Michael Scofield said the model was redesigned in 2019 after the Student Success Act and is updated with final enrollment and demographic data each year.
How the model works and how officials adjust it: staff run the SAM once in the spring to set allocations for the coming year. If class‑size problems appear in August or the fall, a smaller SAM team reviews actual enrollment and may authorize mid‑year adjustments, Scofield said. He added that elementary adjustments typically require adding a half‑ or full‑time position, while secondary adjustments can be made in 0.2 FTE increments because of period coverage.
Committee members asked whether the model is meeting its goals. Board member Sunita Garg asked, "do you do you think the Sam model is working for our district?" Jones and Scofield said the model intentionally directs resources toward schools with higher poverty rates and that building principals and executive directors review adjustments at the start of the school year when actual enrollments are known.
Staff said SAM includes general education allocations and, for 2024–25, also incorporates special education and multilingual allocations. The district maintains a smaller SAM governance group for technical changes and a larger SAM group that includes building and union representation for major model changes.
