Camas School District leaders prepare for more budget cuts

Camas School District leaders are set to announce what Superintendent John Anzalone has called “another small set of reductions” this week as they grapple with a revenue shortfall that will likely result in budget cuts totaling 10% to 12% of the district’s budget ahead of the 2025-26 school year.

“We want to be transparent with the community,” Anzalone told Camas School Board members during their Nov. 25 board meeting. “We will be announcing some other reductions about one week after Thanksgiving

“We want to make sure, as we plan for stability, that we’re trying to avoid temporary fixes and have something that is more sustainable over time so that, hopefully, we won’t be having this conversation five, six, seven years down the road,” Anzalone added. “We’re hoping for future boards that we can set up a good pathway for success.”

The district had a $7.2 million revenue shortfall going into its current 2024-25 budget, with $134.2 million in expenditures and $127 million in revenues, but chose to reduce its general fund reserves from $11.8 million to $4.6 million to balance the budget without major cuts to services. A variety of factors during the current school year, including lower-than-expected enrollment rates, increasing operational costs and the end of COVID-relief money from the federal government, have led to a projected $7.9 million revenue shortfall ahead of the 2025-26 school year and a depleted general fund balance that would have fallen to what district leaders have called “critically low” levels by the end of the current school year without budget reductions.

In August, Anzalone sent a notice to staff announcing that some budget cuts would be needed during the 2024-25 school year.

“As we have all known for some time, our district’s financial health has been on a decline due to rising costs and lagging revenues. These gaps have resulted in growing deficits that our reserves have covered,” Anzalone stated in his Aug. 23 letter.

The school district’s initial round of cuts this school year have included staff cuts within its business services, human resources, central office support, technology and nursing services departments as well as furlough days for Anzalone, his cabinet and the school district’s central office managers, reductions in overtime, 10% cuts to material and supply budgets, restricted travel and meals at meetings, and eliminating return bus service for athletes at away games in the local, Clark County area.

“We anticipate that these initial cuts, effective in the 2024-25 school year, will save approximately $700,000,” Anzalone stated in his August letter to staff. “Our overall budget reduction target is an additional 10% in 2025-26, any steps we take now will help us achieve the total goal of $14 million in reductions, which is necessary to avoid binding financial conditions (with the state).”

Anzalone said Nov. 25 that the district’s current plan to reach a balanced budget is on track.

“Our first goal was to return the fund balance to a sustainable level,” Anzalone said.

Board members are expected to vote Dec. 9, on a proposal that would set an 8% minimum for the district’s general fund reserves to pay bills during months when revenues from sources such as property taxes have not yet flowed into the district’s coffers and to weather unexpected costs.

The superintendent added that the district’s enrollment numbers, which are tied to per-student funding from the state, are “on the positive side” with 10 more students across the district, but “still under where (district leaders would) like to be.”

Jasen McEathron, the district’s director of business services, explained to the Board during their Nov. 25 meeting that the district needs to trim 10% to 12% of its budget to account for a $7.9 million revenue deficit, a minimum reserve balance of 3.3% to pay its bills during low-revenue months, and around 1% to account for salary increases for employees who have reached the next “step” in their salary schedule.

The estimate also assumes state legislators will vote in 2025 to cover inflation costs; that the district will implement a hiring and salary freeze; and that the district’s enrollment does not decline.

Anzalone said the district will release the results of a recent community survey regarding budget cuts this week and will survey community members again in the spring when district leaders will make decisions regarding the 2025-26 school year budget cuts.

The superintendent said he has asked staff to bring ideas for possible reductions to him by Dec. 18.

“After winter break, we will start to (bring) some of those decisions to the Board,” Anzalone said. “That’s when things might start to hit a little closer to home.”