Reynolds School District looks to have narrowly prevented some mid-year layoffs that would have affected dozens of educators.
Last week, 62 classified, licensed and administrative employees received pink slips after weeks of warnings about potential layoffs, due to ongoing financial issues in the 10,000-student district that stretches from the eastern end of Portland to Troutdale. This wave of layoffs followed more than 150 positions already cut going into the 2025-26 school year, according to the Reynolds Education Association.
Mid-year staffing cuts are unusual. This spring, when Oregon school districts approved budgets for the 2025-26 school year, Reynolds had to make $25 million in budget reductions.
Several factors drove the budget cuts, including declining enrollment, increased staffing levels and increased costs of state benefits. These are issues school districts across the state are facing.
But Reynolds didn’t cut enough, and now the district has a lingering $5.5 million shortfall to address.
The two unions’ and the district’s bargaining teams reached a tentative agreement Monday night that will avoid laying off educators, including classroom teachers. There will still be three to eight classified employee positions and one district administrator role cut, according to REA.
“We appreciate the unions’ willingness to make difficult concessions in support of our shared goal of protecting jobs and programs for students,” district officials said in a statement from their communications office. “Through this agreement, fewer than ten positions will be eliminated, and we are able to preserve vital student services and supports.”
Reynolds High School in Troutdale pictured on March 26, 2021.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
REA and the Oregon School Employees Association Reynolds chapter, representing classified staff, have also agreed to six furlough days, down from the 10 days the district proposed originally. The first will be on March 30, with the rest coming at the end of the year.
“While we are deeply saddened that students will lose six days of instruction due to furloughs, this outcome prevents far deeper cuts and maintains stability in our schools during a period of continued underfunding from the state,” the district’s communications officials wrote to OPB. “We remain united in our advocacy for a more equitable and sustainable state funding model for Oregon’s public schools.”
Additionally, the agreement prohibits district administrators from issuing more unilateral layoffs this school year. They’d have to negotiate with the union if they attempted them again.
“Avoiding dozens more layoffs and reducing the district’s proposed unpaid furlough days came as a direct result of the solidarity and support of our students and community, and courage of our educators,” said Jeffrey Fuller, president of the Reynolds Education Association, in a written statement Tuesday.
“While we remain concerned the district’s top-level administrators did not make more cuts to their own main office extra benefits and stipends, or cut their own compensation to the same degree the unions did,” he added, “we believe this tentative agreement protects jobs and student instruction and support.”
Administrators negotiated with the unions’ bargaining teams for weeks on a plan that would call for staff to accept unpaid furlough days to avoid cutting staff. Until Monday, the meetings had not been productive, which led to the pink slips last week, as well as a student protest in solidarity with the staff.
“This is about solidarity and fairness,” Kristy Cousineau, president of the OSEA Reynolds chapter, said in a statement Tuesday. “Classified educators play an essential role in our schools and communities, though our labor is often unacknowledged and underpaid.”
Monday night, the two bargaining teams agreed to the memorandum of understanding, which now needs to be ratified.
Both unions, the local OSEA chapter and REA, will conduct separate ratification votes by members to approve the tentative agreement in the coming weeks. The Reynolds school board is expected to vote on ratification during its meeting on Oct. 22.
