For months, officials at the biggest school system in Oregon have been hinting that they will need to make drastic budget cuts for the 2025–2026 academic year.
Superintendent Kimberlee Armstrong intended to present the first comprehensive analysis of the potential effects of $41.3 million in cuts on students, staff, and school communities on Wednesday. The cuts would result in the loss of 228 positions throughout the district. Before the ceremony, her proposal’s specifics were made public online.
To put things in perspective, the district employs about 8,700 people and is using a general fund budget of $853 million this year.
A budget proposal is always subject to change. In the upcoming months, figures and effects will probably change as community members argue for the preservation of jobs and services and the Legislature considers how much it can afford to spend on public education for the upcoming fiscal biennium, which starts in July. Additionally, union officials will need to iron out any adjustments that affect the parameters agreed upon during labor discussions.
However, during a press conference held at the district’s North Portland offices on Wednesday, Armstrong outlined the planned cuts, which include $29.1 million from school budgets and $12.2 million from the district’s central office budget.
Retirements and other types of attrition naturally reduce the number of employees each year, but that does not necessarily translate into mass layoffs. However, it does imply that by next year, there may be as few as 228 fewer adults in the district’s schools.
Cost-cutting strategies Armstrong stated that she is weighing the following:
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Reducing four professional development days for teachers, which amounts to a four day pay cut for licensed educators. That would save $2.2 million, the district says.
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Cutting the budget for contracted services by $3.4 million.
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Eliminating or leaving open six senior leadership positions, for a total of $1.5 million in savings.
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Eliminating 18 kindergarten educational assistant positions at Title I elementary schools for class sizes of 20 students. Title I schools receive extra federal funding to serve their relatively high concentration of low income families. That would save an estimated $1.2 million.
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Slightly increasing the class sizes across the district s high school to save $2.8 million by paying for 20 fewer teachers.
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Eliminating 15 positions due to enrollment declines, including both licensed educators and support staff, across elementary and middle schools, for a savings of $2.2 million.
Armstrong’s proposed cuts would primarily target instructional coaches, who collaborate with other educators to help them create curricula and teach more effectively, academic intervention specialists, who work one-on-one or in small groups with struggling students, and social/emotional specialists—an area where Portland and other districts greatly increased staffing after the pandemic.
69 fewer teachers would be employed in schools next year as a result of the planned reductions, which would slash $10.4 million from that three-pronged group of educators who deal with pupils at multiple grade levels inside a school.
Inflation, the Public Employees Retirement System’s growing expenditures, the expiration of federal pandemic relief funds, and a persistent enrollment loss that has exceeded the state’s decline in student enrollment are the main causes of the cuts, according to district budget officials. In Oregon, enrollment determines state financing.
Julia Silverman writes for The Oregonian/OregonLive on education. You can contact her at [email protected].
