St. Helens budget committee delays vote as staff and community press alternatives to 12 furlough days

The St. Helens School District Budget Committee declined to approve the proposed 2025-26 budget and the related tax levy at its meeting and instead scheduled a follow-up meeting for June 3 to continue review and public comment.

Committee members heard multiple public comments urging restoration of furlough days and proposing cost-saving alternatives to staff and program cuts. Amelie Rousseau, who said she will be the next SHEA president, urged the committee to remove the district's planned 12 furlough days and offered eight cost-saving ideas, including limiting outside consultants, auditing contracts and subscriptions, centralizing purchasing, expanding after-hours community rentals, and restructuring fall conferences to reduce operating costs. Rousseau asked the committee "please do not rubber stamp this budget. Please consider this proposal."

Superintendent Dr. Gray and district Chief Financial Officer Kelly Woodward briefed the committee on revenue and expenditure assumptions, state rules that affect timber-related revenue, and several clarifications requested in advance. Woodward said the district applied for a 2025 summer learning grant and was told an allocation of $410,000 is secure; that funding is separate from the general fund. Woodward also said the district has received no indication that food-service funding will be reduced and expects meal service to continue as in the current year.

The superintendent described the district's difficult fiscal position and the rationale for furlough days. "You have to approve the budget," Dr. Gray said in response to a committee question about the consequences of failing to approve a budget; he warned that state law requires the two-step process of approval and adoption and that the district must adopt a budget by June 30. On furloughs he said the district's goal is to "buy back 1 day at a time" when additional funds arrive, adding that the current plan reduces furloughs from an earlier projection of 15 days to 12. He also cited Division 22 standards that require instructional hours and said the district will work to restore days as revenues allow.

Class-size and staffing details were discussed. Woodward provided average students-per-classroom figures included in the budget packet: elementary average 26.41 students, middle school 25.35, high school 25.75, Plymouth (alternative/high program) 13.5, and Virtual Academy 33. Committee members asked whether those averages reflect proposed FTE; Woodward replied they are the proposed numbers in the budget.

A classified staff member, Logan Mackenzie Gilbert Renner, vice president of OSEA St. Helens Chapter 31 and a Title I educational assistant at McBride Elementary, said a recent district communication describing furloughs as a collaborative decision with the union did not reflect his experience. He urged clearer transparency about the financial benchmarks required to restore days and expressed cautious optimism that state-level conversations about PERS funding might yield relief.

The committee also received an email read into the record from a volunteer raising concerns about repeated behavioral incidents in classrooms and urging that staffing and student supports be prioritized over central-office expenditures. District staff answered questions about central-office roles: a district administrator explained that a calendar PDF error briefly showed 13 furlough days but had been corrected to 12, and human resources staff described temporary help brought in to manage an extraordinary workload related to investigations, onboarding and public-record requests.

After public comment the committee returned to the agenda item to approve the proposed budget and tax levy; no motion to approve was made and a suggestion to let the approval "die" and reconvene next week was accepted. The committee set a June 3 meeting at 6 p.m. (district office or Zoom as needed) to continue review and to take additional public comment.

The meeting opened with routine approval of the minutes from the May 7 budget-committee meeting; that motion was moved and seconded and carried by voice vote.

What happens next: the budget committee must approve or otherwise complete its legal review before the board adopts the budget by June 30. District leaders said they plan to look for opportunities to "buy back" furlough days as revenue conditions change and to work with union partners on any calendar or contract changes required to restore instructional time.