Reynolds School District administrators and Reynolds Education Association members each met Thursday night to discuss the district’s unusual mid-year budget shortfall.

The problem is — they didn’t meet with each other.

This spring, when Oregon school districts approved budgets for the 2025-26 school year, Reynolds had to make $25 million in budget reductions.

Like other school districts across the state, several factors drove the budget cuts, including declining enrollment, increased staffing levels and increased costs of state benefits.

But Reynolds didn’t cut enough, and now the district has a lingering $5.5 million shortfall to address.

Administrators have been negotiating with the unions’ bargaining teams on a plan that would call for staff to accept unpaid furlough days to avoid cutting staff, as originally reported by The Oregonian. But so far, the meetings haven’t been productive, including hitting a dead end on Thursday.

District leaders insisted that meeting that evening via Zoom was the best option. They would meet in closed session and have union staff observe online in real-time. Officials from the district’s communications office, in a statement to OPB, said that method “maintains the bargaining format which has been used without controversy since the beginning of these discussions last spring, while respecting the request for transparency.”

Union members wanted to meet in person. They claim the district has changed its facts and figures throughout the process and has lost the trust of many of its employees.

“We’d come to a previous agreement, and members voted it down by over 70%,” said Jeffrey Fuller, a teacher and the president of the Reynolds Education Association. That offer asked the union to approve 10 furlough days, each estimated by the district to save roughly $530,000.

“The number one issue when we surveyed them was lack of trust and transparency from the district,” Fuller told OPB.

“You need to look at members and explain to them, and tell them what is happening and how we get to these numbers,” he said. “You need to produce the documents and show us this stuff. And so far, it’s been ‘no.’”

A financial bind

Over the past decade, Reynolds’ enrollment has declined by about 2,300 students — roughly 20% — while staffing has grown by nearly 30%, according to the district’s communications office. The district enrolled just shy of 9,600 students in the 2023-24 school year, the latest available state data.

The increase in staffing was largely supported by one-time funds, such as remaining emergency funds received during the pandemic. Reynolds also relied on spending down reserves. Those one-time funds are now gone, and Reynolds officials say they’re facing a $5.5 million shortfall for the school year that just started.

Officials said the district has already reduced central office staff by about 50% over the past two years and cut non-staff expenditures. All administrators, including the superintendent, are taking 10 furlough days this year.

It isn’t typical for these conversations to be happening at the start of the school year. Oregon school districts approve their budgets in the spring. Mid-year, options to save millions of dollars in the budget are especially limited and complicated.

But if they don’t come up with a way to fill the remaining shortfall — with furlough days or something else — the district claims 79 positions are on the line. Eliminating that many positions would be expected to result in more layoffs and bigger class sizes, as well as changes in class schedules, teacher prep time, transportation and student support.

A counselor shares her concerns

Abby Welter, a school counselor in the district, said there’s been a continuous lack of transparency on how much money is actually needed for the district to balance its budget. She said district administrators keep changing their answers to union leaders at the bargaining table.

As a result, teachers and staff are feeling “incredibly angry, scared, and discouraged.”

“We really just want clear, honest, and specific answers about the budget,” Welter said, “and what the district plans to do moving forward as district enrollment declines, yet student needs remain or increase.”

Welter’s especially worried about deeper cuts to student mental health support. Two-thirds of social workers were cut in the spring layoffs, she said. So were one-third of school counselors.

Welter and Fuller both stressed a lack of planning on the district’s part if these changes were to happen.

Welter said classes are already too big and operating on “bare bones,” and that further cuts would be “catastrophic.”

“We’re not asking for the moon and the stars. We’re not being greedy,” she said. “We just want what’s fair for us, and for our students.”

Next steps unclear as deadline approaches

The communications office said the district’s goal is to reach a fair agreement that respects staff and protects students.

“Every month that passes without an agreement means deeper cuts will be necessary, which is why we are urging balanced, timely solutions at the bargaining table,” the communications office wrote. The district has set Nov. 7 as the date that reductions in force would take effect.

The office did not answer questions on how they will transition classes and staffing in the middle of the school year if cuts are made, or whether cutting school days would jeopardize the district meeting Oregon’s requirements for instructional time.

But before they can do anything, union and district leaders need to agree on how to hold talks.

The district is pushing for future negotiations to be held in closed sessions, but said that offering Zoom access to those meetings allows staff to observe the conversations in real-time.

“The District believes that bargaining works best when it follows what has been the established practice of closed sessions,” the office wrote. “This enables focused, respectful, and productive conversations.”

Fuller said the union penciled in Monday evening to resume negotiations if Thursday went well. But as of Friday, the future remained uncertain.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/09/19/reynolds-school-district-union-budget-funding-staff-meetings-troutdale-oregon/