Eagle Point SD 9 board hears $2.1 million shortfall; trustees map out cuts and offsets

EAGLE POINT, Ore. — The Eagle Point SD 9 board on March 20 was briefed on a preliminary budget shortfall of about $2.1 million and heard staff proposals to close the gap through grant recharges, attrition and limited staff reductions.

Mister Hogan, the district’s finance presenter, told trustees the district projects to be “somewhere around $2,100,000 behind where we were last year” because ESSER pandemic funds are ending, ongoing costs are rising and enrollment remains weak. “ESSER paid us $14,000,000 over the past 3 years,” Hogan said. “We’re about 2.1 short,” he added as he walked the board through line items.

Hogan and Superintendent Kovacs outlined the principal drivers of the shortfall: converting three positions previously funded by ESSER to the general fund (about $260,000), an annual iPad refresh/lease payment of roughly $566,000 for a fleet serving about 4,000 students, and other deferred maintenance and capital encumbrances. Separately, they flagged Senate Bill 489, which changes unemployment eligibility for some 10‑month classified employees, creating an estimated potential long‑term cost to the district of about $700,000. Taken together, those figures produced the roughly $2.1 million shortfall staff presented.

Board policy requires an ending fund balance target of at least 12 percent; Hogan reported current balances near 14.5 percent but said the district cannot sustain continuing annual overspending. “We can’t keep using our ending funding balance to keep our current services,” Hogan said, urging early adjustments “so that it’s not a crisis for us.”

Staff offered a multi-part plan to close the gap: reassign allowable charges to grants where rules permit; rely heavily on staff attrition and position vacancies rather than an immediate RIF (reduction in force); delay or extend certain refresh cycles (Hogan proposed moving the iPad refresh from a 3‑year to a 4‑year cycle for one year); and defer one large purchase (referred to in discussion as ICAPS) to save several hundred thousand dollars. Hogan said a complete budget plan will be ready for the board’s work session and that he expects to bring formal budget‑transfer resolutions in upcoming meetings.

Board members pressed for details on several items — how much could be recovered by deferring purchases, whether grants exist to cover devices, and the specifics of the unemployment estimate. Hogan said some grant offsets will be possible but that “we’re still wrestling with, you know, learning exactly how it’s going to work” with the unemployment changes.

The board did not adopt any cuts at the March 20 meeting; trustees directed staff to return to the work session with a full budget plan and line‑by‑line options. The district’s first public budget meeting remains scheduled for May 7, with additional budget hearings to follow.