Camas projects falling enrollment, preliminary 2025-26 budget shows $1.4 million cushion after cuts

Superintendent John told the Camas School District Board of Directors on June 23 that enrollment is trending down and the district’s preliminary budget for 2025–26 assumes lower student counts, targeted cuts and limited salary growth.

The district is using the demographer’s low scenario for next year, projecting 6,758 students for 2025–26, Superintendent John said. That projection, together with recent settlement uncertainty and continued market pressures on wages and benefits, drives the district’s planning assumptions: zero salary matrix growth beyond step increases, a 10% target for reductions, and conservative federal-grant assumptions.

Why it matters: lower enrollment directly reduces state apportionment revenue and has driven Camas to identify cuts and contingency planning while still aiming to preserve core programs. The preliminary budget presented June 23 shows projected general-fund revenues of about $126.6 million and a preliminary $1.4 million positive variance that would increase the district’s ending fund balance to roughly $5.0 million going into the next fiscal year; the district’s board and budget committee have previously set an 8%…