May 2024 Budget Update
May 2024 Budget Update
Recently, there have been many districts in our area and Oregon that have had to make some very impactful and important budget cuts; many of those districts have been focused on news reports. I wanted to let you know that here, in Oregon City, we are not in the same situation for a variety of reasons. First, we negotiated our employee contracts for the 23-24 and 24-25 school years in the Spring of 2023. This has allowed us to better plan fiscally. We also were able to plan for the end of the Federal ESSER fund (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund) which ends in June of this year. Our enrollment numbers have been stable or creeping up quarterly. Whereas, many other districts have seen a drop in enrollment. Since we receive funding based on the number of students this has had a very large impact on other districts.
In Oregon City, we are needing to trim our budget but we do not need to make massive cuts. The amount of revenue we bring in will exceed our roll up costs if we don’t make some adjustments. In making these decisions we considered our strategic plan goals, data on our progress and feedback from stakeholders. I want to thank the administrators, teachers who participated in listening sessions and other forms of feedback, and our school board for sharing their perspectives.
Our budget trimming should allow us to offer all staff positions even if the exact same role is not available. Due to moves, retirements and career changes we expect to be able to employ staff who want to stay. First, our priority is maintaining our same student- teacher ratios and high quality programming we have had this year. We decided to attend to ratios for baseline services and have made adjustments to administrative, certified and classified staffing.
Impacts to the budget include the following:
Attending to student teacher ratios at 28.5:1. We also have Student Investment Account funds to lower larger class sizes, especially in the primary grades, if we see large numbers in fall.
Attending to ratios for classified staffing and student services staffing.
Delaying curriculum adoptions for Science and Health and instead using this year to pilot materials.
Restructuring supports for responding to and educating students who need behavioral interventions. This includes training for staff and targeted staffing in our elementary schools for learning behavior management.
Trimming department budgets across the district.
Please know we do not make these budget adjustments without a lot of conversation and consideration. No reduction is easy. However, at the time, we simply do not have the revenue resources to continue to spend at the same level. We, in Oregon City School District, are thankful for our collaborative, proactive planning and growing community.
At this time the Budget Committee is considering a proposed budget. Once they approve the budget the School Board will consider adopting the budget. See the website for the dates and times they will be discussing the proposal and how you can learn more and share your thoughts and perspectives. Patrons are also encouraged to speak with their principal to learn about how their students’ school experience may be impacted.
Thank you,
Dr. Dayle Spitzer
Superintendent
