Superintendents hope state ups their budgets
By Terry Murry on Friday, March 17th, 2023 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
PENDLETON – The Oregon Legislature’s 2023 session is not just about bills. It’s also about money. The lawmakers will set a budget for the next two fiscal years, as they do every odd year.
Pendleton School Superintendent Kevin Headings said he and his peers are concerned with the talk that the public education budget will total $9.9 billion. He said that would leave PSD 16R short on funding for retaining teachers and classified staff by about $500,000.
“We have the reserves to cover that, but the concern would be going forward,” he said. “How many times are we going to have to do this? How many years into the future are we going to have to be pulling from our reserves just to cover the costs of staffing and workforce?”
Headings said that Oregon’s school superintendents agree that they would like to see the education budget be finalized at $10.3 billion.
