When it comes to jobs in education it is safe to say that the old ways of thinking are pretty much dead. It used to be that a job in public education meant a job for life. After all no matter how bad things got, most people were not willing to short change their children’s education in the long term in order to save a few extra bucks in the now. At least that was the case in past economic downturns, but in the case of this long-term global economic downturn many schools are feeling the brunt of serious budget cuts and are choosing to cut back on staff in order to make up for those job losses.

Take, for example the case of the Beaverton School District. Situation in the town on Beaverton, Oregon the Beaverton School District is getting ready to get rid of no small amount of jobs in order to shore up a hole in its budget. The school is going to cut back on more than 300 jobs to set its budget to right. The school is getting ready to cut back on 344 jobs in order to fix a $37 million hole in the budget for the coming school year.

In addition the school will be making serious changes to the schools at all levels. The school system outlined those changes in a public memo, posted to the schools website.

Changes to the elementary school will include,” At the elementary level, students learn critical foundational skills in the core academic areas including literacy, math, social studies and science. This model invests in classroom teachers and specialists in P.E., music, and counseling. Intervention teachers will provide targeted instruction in reading, writing and math, as well as support for the Professional Learning Community (PLC) process. Classified staff will provide support in the areas of technology and the school library. The model provides supervision and counseling supports to ensure student safety in a positive learning environment.” So the basic level staffing with remain the same, with the most notable loss being the elimination of the base non-salary allocations for each campus.

On the high school level the cuts will represent a more radical change to the way things are done. In the same statement the school announced the changes, “The High School Model is focused on providing students with a range of rigorous academic courses, electives and co-curricular athletics and activities that prepare them to succeed in post-secondary choices. In addition, students are encouraged to participate in leadership and community service opportunities. High school principals across the system have been engaged in discussions and planning for equity in programming.”

The school is looking to build a contingency plan into its budget, though it will be seriously reduced. In the same statement they said,  “In these unprecedented economic times, the General Fund Contingency will be budgeted at 3.0% of total revenues. Board policy calls for a minimum contingency of 5%, and the ending fund balance will be at least equal to the appropriation for contingency. The contingency will be budgeted at a lower level than policy requires, and will be rebuilt to the required 5% over the next two to three years.”