PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – The Camas School District will outspend its revenue by $5.1 million in the 2022-2023 school year. To get back in the black, the district plans to make $6 million in cuts in the coming year, mainly by eliminating staff and reducing employees’ hours.
The budget deficit isn’t a new issue for the school district, which has been pulling money from its end fund balance for several years. However, the district’s new superintendent Dr. John Anzalone and the school board have plans to bring that habit to an end.
Doing this involves cutting $6 million from the district’s expenses in the 2023-2024 school year.
The district said the jobs of central office staff, building administration staff, classified staff and certificated staff could be impacted and said it planned to focus on reducing educational staff rather than classified staff, since classified staff has been impacted by layoffs in the past.
The board approved the proposed model to reduce staff positions on March 27.
“No matter what, where or whom we looked at, we knew that no decision would be right or wrong, but hopefully, what would be the best choice for the future of our kids,” Anzalone said in a recorded video the district posted about staffing reductions on March 31.
Already, the district has begun issuing layoff notices to employees whose positions will be impacted. It is still uncertain exactly how many jobs will be cut, since it is working with the union to determine which union-represented employees will be impacted.
However, since central office staff are largely unrepresented by the union, the district has already released the list of employees who will be affected there. Some of the positions the district is cutting include an early education director, a transportation supervisor, a safety coordinator and a school nurse.
Cuts made to the central office will save the district nearly $2 million.
Anzalone said cuts to the budget and staffing at the elementary schools will be worth $1 million, cuts to middle schools will be $1.2 million and cuts to high school programs will be just over $1.5 million.
About eight full-time elementary school employees, nine full-time middle school employees and 12 full-time high school employees will be eliminated, the district said. This will result in some larger class sizes.
The district confirms students at Discovery High School participated in a walkout the day before spring break to protest the cuts occurring at their school.
Anzalone said his goal with these cuts is to build a sustainable model for the future so they don’t have to be in this position again.
According to the district’s four-year budget projection summary, if the district cuts $6 million from its expenses in the 2023-2024 school year it will still need to pull $1.4 million from its ending fund balance. The following year, the district doesn’t plan to make any cuts, but will still pull $1.5 million from its ending fund balance.
By the 2025-2026 school year, the Camas School District believes its expenses will be equal to the revenues it receives and it won’t need to pull from the ending fund balance, finally pulling it out of its deficit.
A budget presentation created by the district said that nearly 90% of the district’s total funding pays for salaries and benefits.
The district said declining regionalization funding, declining funding related to declining student enrollment and the sunset of COVID-19 relief funding are all factors that have impacted the budget.