Board weighs state school-fund forecast and falling enrollment, seeks cautious staffing plan

District staff summarized recent meetings with the Oregon Department of Education and other regional groups that modeled potential state-level cuts. Staff said the exercises were preliminary but warned that cuts could hit certain grant programs the district receives, notably SSA funds and high-school success funding (referred to in the meeting as 'high school success measure 98'). "It's just an exercise to see what's going to happen," a staff presenter said, adding that the district would not know final figures until additional forecast releases and possibly March.

Board members and staff discussed contingency planning to avoid emergency in-year layoffs: staff described a suite of responses including using reserves if appropriate, shifting positions based on funding source (grant vs general fund), delaying open hires and using attrition where possible. "We're just kind of in a holding pattern now, only spending what we have to absolutely have to to brace for that," one staff presenter said.

Participants also described a rapid decline in enrollment, especially at kindergarten and early-grade levels across the region, and noted the downstream operational effects such as changes to busing and school consolidation seen in other districts. Staff said realignment would likely be multi-year and that the district is working on building schedule and staffing options per building to manage reduced enrollment without immediate mass layoffs.

The board did not adopt a new staffing reduction policy at this meeting; instead members asked for ongoing briefings and a plan for possible scenarios tied to future state forecasts.