Ontario SD 8C superintendent outlines plan to shore up district finances amid enrollment decline

Superintendent Nikki told the Ontario School District 8C board that ensuring the district’s long-term financial stability is her top goal amid enrollment declines and a recently negotiated salary schedule that created an expected operating deficit.

"The bottom line is ... we knew coming into this school year that we are in deficit because we negotiated new contracts last year," Nikki said, adding the district anticipated using some savings to transition to a new salary scale.

Nikki said the district maintains a "really healthy, healthy, healthy reserve" intended to cover multiple months of operations and to allow the district to weather federal- and state-level funding shifts. She and staff are pursuing several strategies to reduce the budget gap while limiting the impact on students: hiring and spending freezes, selective non-replacement of positions when employees retire or leave, reassigning existing staff to open roles, and seeking grants or other funding sources.

She described one operational consequence of recent contract changes: by covering the insurance cap, more employees enrolled in district health plans, which increased costs in a federal Title budget. "There was just enough... that it blew her Title budget," Nikki said of the effect. Staff moved some positions from the Title budget into open ELD and special-education roles to address that shortfall.

When asked for current enrollment, Nikki said the district is "in there, like, 2,058," and said fuller enrollment and revenue details will be shared at the regular board meeting. She told the board the district is meeting weekly with peer superintendents and state organizations (COSA, ODE) to track potential legislative changes that could affect funding.

Nikki emphasized the district prefers to reduce staffing through attrition rather than layoffs and that administrators are reviewing requests for spending exceptions on a case-by-case basis: "if you need something, call Deborah Devon or I will talk through it, and we'll decide if that's something you can't live without."

The superintendent said the board will get a fuller revenue forecast and midyear updates during the regular board meeting and pledged to continue seeking grants and cost-saving partnerships.