4J budget committee advances deficit plan as cuts spark concern

Up to 269 full-time-equivalent jobs, about 12% of Eugene School District 4J’s current workforce, could be on the chopping block under a budget plan built to erase a deficit measured in tens of millions of dollars. The reductions already approved by the school board would reach school discretionary budgets, professional development, technology subscriptions, nutrition services and catering, academic support, extracurricular programs and staffing, putting music, gym and other student-facing services under pressure next year.

The 4J Budget Committee unanimously passed the 2026-27 funding plan on May 6, sending it to the school board for the next round of public debate. The board will hear public comment on May 13 and is scheduled to take a final vote on May 27. Notice of the budget hearing and the 2026-27 totals was published May 7, and district records say the budget committee is a 14-person body made up of the school board plus an equal number of appointees.

District materials say the budget is being built around $30 million in reductions, a number shaped by more than 16,000 ThoughtExchange responses and ratings from the community. The district’s timeline shows the first budget committee meeting of this cycle was postponed from March 31 to April 8, extending a process that has already forced administrators to make hard choices about what schools can keep and what they may lose.

The fiscal strain has been building for months. In January, 4J said cuts then totaled $20.2 million, leaving $9.8 million more to identify. By February, the district said it expected to spend more than $30 million in reserves to make ends meet for the 2025-26 school year, citing declining birth rates and enrollment, higher staffing and PERS retirement costs, and the end of federal COVID-relief funds. In March, district leaders said the budget gap for the coming school year could be $10 million to $20 million larger than first projected. By April, they said actual costs and lower-than-expected savings had left an anticipated $16 million gap that may require one-time money, including revenue from the sale of a downtown Eugene building, to balance the budget.

The budget debate has landed most sharply in schools themselves. Employees and community members warned the committee about the effect on school meals, music and gym teachers, and the district practice of reassigning educators to different schools. At Kelly Middle School, student Luna told the committee to consider whether a solution that “nobody likes” was really the best option available. District materials also note that 4J has had five superintendents in six years, underscoring how unstable the financial ground has become as the district tries to keep classrooms staffed and services intact for next year.