Citing declining enrollment and budget challenges, Bethel School District leaders have voted to close Clear Lake Elementary School starting in the 2025-2026 school year.
The school board decided to close the school during a meeting Monday, and make other changes to address a growing budget challenge. Next school year, the district faces a $2.6 million dollar deficit.
Bethel Superintendent Kraig Sproles said the west Eugene district has around 700 fewer students now than it did 10 years ago.
"We are funded based on a per student formula,” he said. “The per student formula, when you lose 8 or 9% of your students, you get less money to be able to run your schools. During the same time over the last 10 years, the services that schools provide have greatly increased.”
School districts across the state are seeing a significant drop in enrollment while they navigate other financial challenges, such as labor contracts and expiring federal funds.
Sproles said he’s hoping Oregon state leaders take a second look at how schools are funded next legislative session.
“We’re at a time when our economy is going really strong,” he said. “We have the strongest personal state kicker, we have a very strong corporate kicker as well, but at the same time we have school districts across the state that are laying off teachers and closing schools.”
The Clear Lake Elementary School closure, as well as budget cuts, will mean larger class sizes and a boundary readjustment. Sproles said the district hopes to avoid layoffs by eliminating positions when staff retire, or leave the district.
He said the district is still discussing future uses for the Clear Lake building, including a pre-school center, or a community meeting space.
Bethel will hold a series of listening sessions to gather community feedback on the change. The first is Thursday at 6 p.m. at Willamette High School.
