The Corvallis School District is currently developing its 2024-25 budget. While many details and specifics are still in progress, it is important to share information about the process to date, how decisions are made, and what the decisions are based on. Additional updates will be shared throughout the budget process this spring.
District Budget Development
Each year, the district develops its budget based on projected funding. District funding primarily comes from the following sources:
- State School Fund (Property taxes and other local funds)
- Grant funding (such as the Student Investment Account)
- Local Option Levy (Local property tax renewed every five years)
The district develops the proposed budget each year and presents it to the Budget Committee, which is made up of school board members and community members. The Superintendent, along with district and school leadership, creates the proposed budget. The Budget Committee reviews the proposed budget, recommends changes, and approves the budget to go to the school board for final adoption.
More information on the district budget is on our Financial Services webpage.
Why Does the District Have Less Funding?
There are several reasons why the district has less school district funding.
Decreasing Enrollment
Like most school districts in Oregon, the number of students in CSD schools is decreasing.
- The district has had decreased enrollment over the last five years, from 6,668 in 2018 to a projected 6,001 students in 2024.
- The district expects this to continue based on recent birth rates (how many children are born in Corvallis).
- The state funding is based on the number of students in our district. Fewer students mean our district has less of this funding.
In addition to decreasing birth rates, the district’s enrollment is impacted by high housing costs and low availability of housing in Corvallis. Based on talking with local schools, the number of students enrolling in other local and private schools, online schools, and homeschool have not changed enough to account for the decrease in our overall enrollment.
End of Temporary Pandemic Relief Funding
To support K-12 schools and address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government provided school districts with temporary funding. Our district prioritized this funding for staff to reduce learning loss and support students’ social and emotional needs. This funding ends on June 30, 2024.
Increasing Costs & Staff Numbers
Seventy-five percent of our district spending supports staffing. Our staffing budget includes added staff for pandemic-related learning loss over the last four years and yearly salary and contract increases.
2024-25 Budget
Our district does not have enough funding to cover current costs based on the funding for the next school year. Currently, our district predicts this deficit to be about $10.9M. In order to maintain the reserves required by board policy, the district must reduce spending by $8.2M.
Priorities
Decisions about reduced spending are made with the following priorities:
- Goals for student outcomes drive the budget process
- Providing every student with equitable access and opportunities
- Using data to tell what is working and what is not
- Long-term strategic decisions instead of one-year decisions
- Review patterns of spending
Reductions
The district will reduce spending in the following ways:
- Reduce $2.8 million through class-size adjustments and reduced staffing
- Adjust class sizes to projected enrollment for next year
- Class sizes will be increased by one, returning to pre-COVID class sizes
- Reduce $4.6 million in district office department staffing and budgets
- Reduce $0.8 million through reduced school support staffing
- School support staffing are all non-classroom teacher staffing positions
These reductions allow the district to minimize impacts at the building level and prioritize funding in the areas most critical to support our student’s success and align with our district’s priorities.
Current Changes
The district communicated some of the first reductions for next school year to staff and specific school families last week. To address enrollment changes, these were administrative position adjustments at Mt. View Elementary, Crescent Valley High School, and the district office.
As budget decisions continue this spring, the district will provide updates.