Worker shortage, enrollment decline challenge district schools

“The workforce shortage is real,” he continued. “And although we are currently nearing 100% staff on the licensed side, we are not fully staffed on the classified side.” In particular, the district is struggling to find bus drivers, secretaries, custodians, maintenance workers, instructional assistants and other support staff.

“Additionally, each district shared a concern for the lack of available substitute teachers,” Polkinghorn said. “Not having sufficient substitutes causes an incredible amount of stress on just about every person in a school — the secretary, principal, teachers and students. It was also noted that there seems to be a shortage of available preschool teachers in our region as well. While HRCSD does not operate any preschools, the implications of not having ready and accessible preschool programs has both long and short term effects for our school district, not the least of which is having our youngest learners ready for kindergarten when they arrive at our schools.”

The second issue — enrollment — is another challenge for the district. While enrollment at Parkdale and Cascade elementary schools are up, the rest of the district is seeing a decline. Enrollment in public education is down, both in Oregon and nationally, Polkinghorn noted; this year, HRCSD enrollment is down 1-2% from last school year, and just under 5% from pre-pandemic enrollment. “Enrollment pre-pandemic peaked in the 2015-2016 school year, and has been on a steady decline since then, with the exception of the 2020 school year, when we saw a significant drop,” he said.

It’s important because enrollment drives funding for schools. “One of the narratives being formed across the state is that because enrollment in public schools has decreased statewide, funding for public schools should also decrease. This is a dangerous narrative,” Polkinghorn said. “Our students’ needs couldn’t be greater; we are working our absolute hardest to make up for nearly two years of disrupted learning, and students and staff continue to suffer the effects of the crisis the pandemic has caused. We need an investment in public schools like we’ve never seen before.”

He stressed it’s too early to make funding estimates or plans because a lot could happen with the upcoming biennial budget. “We have elections coming up in November that will shape the balance of power in our state, including a new governor,” he said. “There remains a lot of uncertainty around the economy and the effect inflation will have on the next biennial budget. These two key issues, a new government and the state of the economy, will be the main drivers for how the budget gets formed in the upcoming biennium.

“There may come a time when I ask all of you, and our community, to advocate for funding for our schools,” he said. “For now, we’re in a holding pattern. If or when it becomes necessary, I’ll let you know.”