Superintendent announces administrative reassignments and outlines planned reductions amid funding uncertainty

Superintendent Cordon presented the Roseburg Public Schools board with a staffing update and an overview of budget pressures the district is preparing to address, including an estimated $600,000 impact from the lapse in Secure Rural Schools (SRS) funding and other state and federal funding uncertainties.

Cordon announced personnel reassignments that the district will implement for next school year: Megan Pirtle, currently principal at Winchester Elementary, will serve as assistant principal at Fremont Middle School; Kevin Hunt, currently an assistant principal at Roseburg High School, will serve as assistant principal at Winchester; and Ben Bentia, currently a coordinator in Teaching and Learning, has been appointed principal of Fullerton Ford Elementary. Cordon said the district will not repost the high-school assistant-principal vacancy or the Teaching and Learning coordinator position at central office as part of the staffing adjustments.

Cordon described the district's budget context and the steps taken to respond. He said the district identified roughly $2.4 million in reductions or adjustments so far and that earlier PERS-related projections had implied a larger potential hit; the district is tracking additional costs including a roughly $170,000 increase in insurance ("safe rates") and uncertainty in student-investment-account (SIA) and federal IDEA/title funding. "What won't happen in our organization is some of the stuff we see happening federally. Someone's not going to get an email about their job disappearing," Cordon said. He described a person‑to‑person approach to staffing changes: "When we need to make an adjustment or reduction, it's gonna happen like it happens this week, where we sit down face to face with people, we have a conversation, we talk about next steps."

Cordon said the district is preparing an estimated budget subject to forthcoming state revenue forecasts from the legislature and that next-week committee materials will reflect proposed transfers reductions and other adjustments intended to keep cuts "as far from the classroom as we can." He told the board the March 3 state estimate produced a larger-than-expected gap (an additional roughly $1.6 million in deficit in district modeling) and reiterated the district's preference to use attrition and careful redeployment to minimize layoffs.

He also described a set of investments and innovations the district is pursuing — including a $2.5 million partnership creating a high‑school program on a college campus for advanced medical pathways — framing them as strategic priorities even amid fiscal constraints.

Board members thanked Cordon for the transparency and asked questions about implementation. Cordon said the district will continue to update the board and the community as more state and federal budget information becomes available and as the district finalizes reductions and transfers.