When Valerie Blood’s oldest started second grade last year, she was struggling to read. Her daughter has been diagnosed with autism and Tourette syndrome and was often over-stimulated. Blood said 4J didn’t always have the staff to offer consistent, targeted support.
She said a mid-year staffing change - an education assistant who provided daily one-on-one instruction - turned their school year around.
“She was more regulated, feeling safe in her environment,” Blood said. “She was able to read and now we’re working on math and getting her to grade level for math, and reading.”
Blood said she’s afraid the district’s looming budget shortfall, and threats of federal funding cuts, will mean a smaller bench of support staff and less resources for her children, and other kids who are neurodivergent or need a little extra help for other reasons.
“The building support, the teachers and the staff should be last, it shouldn’t be first,” she said.
School Districts in Oregon receive funds on a per-student basis. According to ODE data, there are roughly 17% fewer kindergarteners statewide enrolled this school year compared to 10 years ago.
4J Interim Superintendent Colt Gill said Eugene is facing similar challenges. The district’s birth rate has declined and fewer young families are moving in. Staffing however, has increased.
Gill’s initial proposed budget cut $19 million. He said the district will have to spend nearly $30 million in reserves to get through this school year, and will likely have to spend savings next year, despite the planned cuts.
“That means in future years we need to make reductions,” Gill said. “It does allow the budget committee and the board to have some leeway in how much they reduce this year, and how much they consider for next year.”
The Trump Administration’s executive orders will also complicate 4J’s financial stability, eliminating support for school resource coordinators, which do similar work to social workers. Trump’s administration has also threatened to withhold more than $1 billion from schools across the state, for services like school lunch, disability services and preschool, according to a video released recently from several Oregon school district superintendents, including Gill.
4J is fighting one of Trump’s executive orders in court, a ban on diversity programs, and has won a temporary reprieve. That case is still ongoing.
Gill said if the district tries to replace some of its lost federal funding with its own, local dollars, even more future funding could be withheld because of existing U.S. Department of Education rules.
Gill said 4J had originally hoped to address the budget shortfall by leaving jobs vacant. Normally between 50 and 100 workers retire each year, or are hired away by other employers.
It may have to lay off staff instead.
“This year, perhaps because of the unsure economy, we are not seeing as many folks moving to retirement and moving to resign and relocate elsewhere,” he said.
Rio Annsa, a parent of two 4J students, said they’re concerned about 4J’s planned budget cuts, and the reductions in federal funding.
Annsa said the resource coordinators specifically have made a huge difference for their family when they moved to the district, connecting them with programs and tracking down beds for their children to sleep in when they couldn’t afford furniture.
Both they, and parent Valerie Blood, said they’re hoping 4J reduces the number of administrators it has before making cuts to services and staff that directly impact students.
"Children simply need to be housed, and fed, and clothed,” Annsa said. “All of these basic needs must happen in order for learning to ever take place. I want to make sure that the school board focuses on that as a number one priority and really thinks creatively and bravely to make sure they are meeting that goal as much as humanly possible."
The proposed budget cuts roughly 4.2% of licensed positions, which includes teachers, councilors and nurses; 2.5% of classified staff, which is custodians, education assistants, bus drivers and food workers; and 4% of administrative staff. Those percentages are likely to change as the school board finalizes its budget.
Employee groups have said some workers have already received notices that their jobs have been changed, or could be eliminated.
Gill said the district is trying to give its staff as much time as possible to prepare for potential hardship, and any notices sent right now are preliminary.
“The district is in kind of an impossible situation,” Gill said. “We’re in this place where we have the lowest enrollment we’ve experienced, and the highest level of staffing we’ve experienced, the district has to find the balance because we’re paid per student. We have to find the balance and operate within the revenue that the state provides us.”
The budget - which is scheduled to go before the school board this month - still could be re-written if the school board decides it wants to preserve more services, or if they believe they need more money in their rainy day fund.
The first public hearing on next year’s 4J budget is scheduled on Wednesday, May 7 at 5:30 p.m.
