As Newberg Public Schools works to reduce expenditures by more than $4 million for the 2018-19 school year, the district has committed to reducing district administrative staff by $500,000.

As part of these reductions, the following positions are being eliminated from the district office:

• Assistant Superintendent
• Director of Teaching and Learning
• Chief of Staff
• Communications Coordinator

These four positions are part of the district’s 10-member Senior Staff, for a savings of $507,000.

In addition, Crater Elementary Principal Michele Paton is resigning to take a position with Salem-Keizer Public Schools. The district will not fill this position. Instead, Ewing Young Principal Kevin Milner will serve as principal at both Crater and Ewing Young. To ensure adequate support in both buildings, Crater PE Teacher Brian Wood will serve as Dean of Students in a 0.5 position. Catalyst Principal Tim Graham will serve as the principal of COLA.

The district will save the cost of the Crater principal position, minus the costs for the Dean of Students role and hiring a 0.5 teacher to fully staff PE. The total costs savings from the senior staff reductions and the principal vacancy exceed $600,000.

The district is still collecting input about the programs and values that are important to all stakeholders before beginning to build the budget. Next week, a team of district and union leaders will synthesize all the data. After Spring Break, district leadership will meet with the associations to begin collaborating on budget scenarios.

The district needs to have a first draft of next year’s budget complete by April 17 in order to present it to our Budget Committee by May 1. That means any notifications about a potential Reduction in Force for next year will not come until after April 17.

Newberg Public Schools thanks you for your engagement in this budget process as everyone works together to find solutions that will have the least impact on students.