Portland Public Schools raises projected deficit to $56 million, recommends more layoffs

Continuing a long train of financial woes, Portland Public Schools (PPS) has announced a budget shortfall of $56.3 million – higher than previously projected – for the next academic year.

“We face a hard reality,” Superintendent Dr. Kimberlee Armstrong told board members, as reported by Willamette Week. “The hardest thing a district does is reduce the supports it knows that students need.”

As a result, PPS is looking to cut 336 full-time positions, according to the article.

“The district continues to forecast rising costs, limited revenues, and declining enrollment. (Student enrollment at PPS is declining at a much faster rate than enrollment statewide.) And the deficit persists even with increases in funding from the State School Fund, alongside some local and intermediate revenue gains, because expenses continue to outpace revenue.”

As previously reported by The Lion, the district recently announced a “mid-year operating gap” of $22.5 million, which officials described as “a corrective action moment.”

“We always anticipated a need to reduce our workforce sometime this spring,” wrote Michelle Morrison, the district’s chief financial officer, to board members and staff. “This current reality may accelerate that timeline slightly.”

Further deficits projected

In addition to the upcoming year, PPS is bracing for a higher shortfall of $65.2 million in the 2027-28 academic year, Armstrong said.

“The district has already reduced about $170 million in its budget over the past few years, starting with some central office cuts in the 2022-23 school year,” Willamette Week noted.

To combat the trend of rising deficits, officials are considering a reset plan to stop using one-time funds as a stopgap measure for patching budget deficits, according to the outlet.

“A chart in a budget presentation indicated that without a reset, the district would continue facing larger and larger deficits, hitting $169 million by the 2029-30 school year.”

Critics of public education point out the massive increase of non-teaching, administrative staff positions as one contributor to the district’s ballooning expenses.

District administration grew by 88% between 2000 and 2019, compared to just 9% for teachers and 8% for students.

“Simply put, expenditures are rising faster than revenues,” Morrison said in January. “Enrollment is declining, and because so much of our budget goes to staffing, fewer students means fewer dollars, which also means fewer staff.”