Bend-La Pine Schools looking to cut dozens of unfilled positions in 2024-25 due to enrollment drop, end of federal funds

District seeks to avoid 'financial cliff,' general-fund deficit, hold to at least 5% reserves

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – Bend-La Pine Schools plan to eliminate dozens of open positions through attrition in the coming fiscal year and may cut even more jobs the following year due to a combination of factors, including a decline in enrollment and the end of one-time federal funds related to the COVID epidemic.

A proposed 2024-25 budget released before Tuesday’s meeting of the budget committee includes a 3% reduction of positions in the district’s general fund, or “approximately 58 positions … through attrition (retirements, resignations, etc.).”

The draft budget says that the number of positions left unfilled is “more than is needed” to end the 2024-25 fiscal year with a 5% reserve fund, which district policy requires, “but we want to take advantage of attrition while we can.” It also “provides time to see what (state) funding looks like for the 2025-27 biennium” and what new employee contracts look like after the next fiscal year.

If the district’s projections and assumptions about funding levels prove accurate, the school district would reduce another 7% of positions in the 2025-26 fiscal year, “to allow us to get closer to that 5% reserve level in FY2026-27. That is an additional 130 positions across all groups. Obviously, this will significantly impact our service level.”

“If we make no reductions, we project that we will end FY2025-26 with a deficit in the general fund,” the budget outline said. “And it compounds from there, with similar assumptions the years following. By making reductions in FY2024-25 through attrition only, we can then wait to see how the Legislature funds K-12 for the 2025-27 biennium.”

In the last, 2021-23 biennium, state lawmakers increased the State School Fund by only 3.3%, the district said, which forced them to use the one-time federal funds to hold to their current service level.

“We knew and communicated widely the use of these resources and that we were creating a ‘financial cliff’ by doing so,” the district staff said, though it “did allow us to maintain or improve our services during a time when our students needed it most, coming out of the worldwide pandemic.”

The one-time federal funds, available through Sept. 30 of this year, have been funding 30 to 40 positions each year.

“Again, these one-time funds we are using to pay for costs that are ongoing, continuing to create the ‘cliff,’” They said. “Starting in FY2024-25, we have to begin to adjust our expenditures to our resources.”

The district projects a fall enrollment of 16,940 students, a decline of 194 from a year earlier, with a continued growth in elementary school numbers but fewer students at the middle and high school levels.

The school district also has a local option property tax levy on the May 21 primary election ballot, which would provide about $21 million in its first year for six stated goals that include stronger career and technical education (CTE) programs, protecting class sizes, student support and recruiting and retaining staff.