Springfield Public Schools will eliminate more than 30 jobs next school year and significantly scale back its Spanish dual immersion program.
The budget cuts, which board members approved in a 3-2 vote Monday night, will essentially end dual immersion for middle and high school students.
John Douglas Cornejo Rosales Murray is a dual immersion student at Springfield High School. He asked the school board to reconsider, saying the program has given him the tools to connect with many of his family members who only speak Spanish.
"As someone who is mixed, I've felt like I had to choose my Latino side or my white side,” he said in his testimony, “but this program has helped me embrace both.”
One out of every four students at Springfield School District is Latino, according to the latest Oregon Department of Education data. The district enrolls just shy of 9,000 students in total.
Two dozen people testified during the school board meeting Monday to raise concerns about the budget. Several Latino community leaders, students and parents said they felt betrayed by the district's decision.
Mother Maetzi Contreras told the board she sent her son to Springfield from a neighboring district specifically so he could join the dual enrollment program.
“I decided to put him into this program because you promised us you were going to continue until 12th grade,” Contreras said. “You’ve cut it off without thinking of their futures.”
She said she’s already made sacrifices to ensure he can continue to attend, and the district didn’t ask what she or any other parents could do to help preserve the program before deciding to end it for older students.
In an email to KLCC on Monday, district spokesperson Brian Richardson said students will still have access to Spanish language opportunities. Dual language at the elementary level will continue, middle school students will be able to take a Spanish cultural heritage course taught in Spanish, and high schoolers will be able to take high school Spanish classes.
The district said it will also support tuition for more advanced students to take Spanish classes at Lane Community College or the University of Oregon.
Richardson said that the decision aimed to preserve the elementary program and maintain Spanish course options for older students, while also addressing declining enrollment trends and budget constraints.
“This was not a decision that District leaders wanted to make, nor was it made lightly,” he wrote.
Board member Amber Langworthy was one of two who voted against the budget. She said there were too many questions, like whether district officials listened to input from staff or parents before making a decision about the dual immersion program.
"I don't feel like I can vote for the budget because of too many remaining unknowns,” Langworthy said.
Krystal Sundstrom is the district’s former dual immersion coordinator; she now teaches English language development. She said the approved cuts will have impacts far beyond students actually enrolled in the program.
Many of her students are not officially in the program, but they joined dual immersion classes to catch up on learning loss or missing credits.
"By offering dual immersion classes — and students can take some of those required classes in their primary language — we're expanding access to graduation," Sundstrom said.
Sundstrom was reassigned away from dual immersion last year in a previous round of budget cuts, which she said already put a strain on the program.
She said, on paper, the program may look like it’s losing students. When she was coordinator, the district had opportunities to transition in older students, she said, but, instead, officials made policy decisions that prevented them from participating.
“There could be different on-ramps for other students to join the program, and we’ve limited access,” she said.
Board Member Bob Brew, who voted in favor of the budget, said he learned about the dual immersion cuts at the same time as the public. He said he was worried that ordering the district not to cut specific programs would be micromanaging — which the board has gotten into legal trouble for in the past.
With the job cuts approved Monday, in addition to the district’s mid-year layoffs, Springfield Public Schools will start next school year with approximately 60 fewer full-time equivalent employees compared to the start of the current school year.
Springfield is far from the only school facing financial issues — it’s a statewide problem.
Eugene School District 4J, for example, cut nearly 270 jobs to help close an approximately $46 million deficit when it adopted its budget last month. Portland Public Schools is in the midst of a similar multi-year budget challenge and has made widespread cuts as well.
