Portland Public Schools announced a $50 million budget shortfall for the upcoming school year in January. The district outlined cutting nearly 290 full-time positions to meet the budget reduction, with 180 at the school level and 108 at the central office level in a preliminary report.
Ida B. Wells High School students should expect to see fewer staff members and bigger class sizes.
PPS suggests class sizes will be 33.3 on average in the preliminary report. IBW principal Ayesha Coning’s goal is to have a maximum class size of 32 next school year. It will not be clear what this number will be until much later on.
This year, there is no set-in-stone class size maximum. The vast majority of core classes are under 30 students, with some exceeding.
Coning wants students to feel assured amid the shortfall. “We will prepare our students to live out their post-secondary dreams, to graduate from Ida B. Wells, and be prepared to move forward in life as a thriving, courageous citizen,” she said.
Coning received the school’s staffing for the upcoming school year on Feb. 9. It revealed the building will lose 8.33 full-time employees next year, although the student population is projected to increase. From there, Coning coordinates with the district on how this decrease in staff will be met, whether through staff members retiring, reducing their hours or unassigning them.
However, Coning is fighting to retain one full-time staff member.
Unassignments are based on seniority in PPS according to the teacher’s contract with the district. The teachers who have taught in PPS for the shortest amount of time will be the first to go.
Staff will know if they have been unassigned by the end of the month. In their contracts, unassigned teachers do have a right to a job. If a position opens at another school, an unassigned teacher can be transferred there.
Coning plans to send a message out to the community regarding the reduction in staff later in the semester.
Class offerings will still be based on the forecasting numbers IBW counselors will receive within the next two weeks, and the number of staff IBW will have next year.
Coning sees electives potentially having less capacity. “We may not have as many electives next year. There might be some electives where there’s only one section. We might not be able to run it because we need that teacher teaching English 5-6 or U.S. History,” she said.
PPS cites rising costs, limited funding from the state and federal government and declining enrollment as the primary causes of the shortfall. This $50 million represents approximately 4.58% of PPS’s $1.06 billion budget this school year, KGW reported. On Feb. 4, the PPS school board and Superintendent Dr. Kimberlee Armstrong sent a letter to the Oregon Legislature, urging them to use the state’s emergency education fund to give the district some relief.
At the elementary and middle school levels, the increased class sizes and staff reductions will translate to more blended classrooms, where first and second, and fourth and fifth grade classes are combined, according to the preliminary report.
This budget shortfall follows several school years of facing a budget deficit. Just last school year, PPS was relatively in the same position as it confronted a $40 million reduction.
The changes made at IBW due to budget reductions haven’t been significant in the past years.
Last month, PPS held several Budget Engagement Sessions at various PPS schools where community members shared their thoughts, questions and concerns regarding the shortfall. One was held at IBW on Jan. 22. PPS has not shared any more upcoming engagement opportunities for the community.
