On Feb. 3, Superintendent Andrea Castañeda hosted a meeting about a $23 million budget reduction proposal for the Salem-Keizer Public Schools, (SKPS), 2026-27 school year due to declining student enrollment. SKPS projects that by 2031 student enrollment will be at 32,000 which is a decrease down from the 38,818 in the 2025-26 school year.
I believe what this reduction really does is build a runway,” Castañeda said.
Proposed Reduction Plan
$9 million of the reductions will focus on services such as staff, staffing expenses, contracted services, supplies and changes in equipment upgrade cycles. However, the district is prioritizing academics by investing in instructional materials and training. The needs for each school were based on the last four months of building tools.
“What is true on paper is not true in reality for each school,” Castañeda said.
SKPS are focusing on early literacy development by adjusting elementary staffing to have fewer kindergarten and first grade blended, combined grade, classrooms, which is 50% of the blended classrooms districtwide. The goal is to eliminate the blended classrooms for kindergarten and first grade students.
“Because of how important early literacy is, those foundational skills, we are prioritizing K and one. We will not be able to get the other blends this 2026-27 school year,” Castañeda said.
Staff Decrease
Schools will receive a reduction of $14 million. There will be an estimated decrease of 60 licensed and 60 classified staff across all 65 sites. Licensed would include teachers and similar roles. Classified staff are support aids, office staff and custodians. For the next school year, SKPS knows of 130 vacancies increased because of retirement and resignation of staff.
“We did partner with our unions to perform an early retirement policy,” Castañeda said.
As of Feb. 3, SKPS knows of 80 retirements for next school year after predicting about 100. They are taking early precautions to evaluate student and staff numbers, as they are sticking to their student and staff ratio in schools without needing to close schools.
“Oregon districts have a very difficult few years coming,” Castañeda said
The budget reduction will not cut mental health, music, fine arts, career and technical education, athletics and extracurricular programs.
The proposed budget reduction is in preparation for declining birth rates in Oregon. Last August in 2025, SKPS began preparing for the student enrollment decrease when rebuilding the five-year forecast.
“Like any reduction, it is not going to be stable forever,” Castañeda said.
Community Communication
On Feb. 2, SKPS families were notified of the proposed budget reduction. A video and other information regrading the process of the new budget reductions is available for the community. On Feb. 3 and Feb. 4 at 6 p.m, families will be able to attend a meeting on the proposed reductions. They also are able to provide their feedback using a survey emailed to the community through ParentSquare by Feb. 13.
“We always work hard to be transparent,” Castañeda said.
SKPS’ goal is to have a plan by the end of February when they want to share concrete steps to the community by mid-March.
