By Ashley Hall
 
November 10, 2009
 
GRANTS PASS, Ore. - Many Southern Oregon school districts have faced layoffs, furloughs, and pay cuts.
 
In Grants Pass however...
 
"(We've) stitched something together that held things together for this year. But we're very concerned that some of the things we deferred in the spring may become a reality this year, and we may not be any different than some of the roads our neighbors have had to go down," said John Higgins with the Grants Pass School District.
 
Grants Pass School District 7 is not without budget cuts and stress.
 
"We reduced the number of positions at the high school. And as I've said, that's put a real strain because we've had higher than anticipated enrollment," Higgins said.
 
However, in the grand scheme of things...
 
"We may have been a little bit more fortunate than some of our neighboring districts in that we have had a historically, little bit higher than average reserve," Higgins said.
 
For the Three Rivers School District, which covers the rest of Josephine County outside of Grants Pass, this year has actually not brought that many budget-forced changes. In fact, they say they've been cutting the budget for so many years now, this year is just adding things to the list.
 
"The most visible things are the extra duty reductions. We didn't cut any programs, but for instance, reduced the number of coaches that are paid in a given sport. So parents, players, and coaches have had to do some additional fundraising," said Dan Huber-Kantola with the Three Rivers School District.
 
In 2008, when fuel was at $4 a gallon, Three Rivers was the first district in the area to call attention to the problem and make cuts.
 
"In anticipation that we would have some budget issues, that's when we went to the common prep at the high school and the trimester system and we didn't make as drastic of cuts last year as we could have," Kantola said.
 
While this year's cuts do involve staff reductions, and therefore larger class sizes, they say the biggest change is not very visible.
 
"The way that people are paid. There's a number of teaching positions that are paid out of stimulus dollars both that come in the form of state support and that come in parts of federal dollars," Kantola said.
 
Many parents and students would remind the district that an entire school was closed this year..
 
"Yeah, we were forced to close Wolf Creek, and they've made a fairly successful transition into Manzanita. The biggest impact was that many extra kids created some traffic issues around the school," Dan said.
 
Despite the cuts and changes, the districts have seen some benefits...
 
In Grants Pass:
 
"Silver lining, we tend to be one of the few remaining self-funded health insurance districts around. And last year we didn't have a great experience in terms of healthcare. But this year we were able to reduce healthcare costs," Higgins said.
 
Both Josephine County districts say it's not the present they're worried about.
 
"We are more concerned looking forward, though, with the second year of the biennium being somewhat in question in terms of school funding, with a couple of tax measures scheduled to be on the ballot in January, that would result in a $2.7 plus million revenue reduction for the district," Higgins said.
 
"If there aren't more tax dollars, that's going to make next year tougher," Kantola said.
 
School districts say they will begin to find out about next year's budget in a few weeks, and will begin a new conversation at that point to plan for next school year.