Vancouver Public Schools to cut nearly 200 teachers and staff amid budget deficit

Source: KOIN 6 https://www.koin.com/local/clark-county/vancouver-public-schools-to-cut-nearly-200-teachers-and-staff-amid-budget-deficit/

Vancouver Public Schools formally adopted a resolution on Tuesday that would cut nearly 200 full-time teachers and staff, as the district faces an ongoing budget deficit.

The resolution, originally posed for the school board’s consideration earlier this month, was outlined to reflect the approximately $24 million needed in reductions to stabilize their budget.

The Reduced Educational Program Plan for the 2026-27 school year will see over 22 full-time employees cut from administrative/central office-based staff. Additionally, building-based staff will see approximately 127 full-time employee cuts, including nearly 90 teachers.

Other non-administrative positions, such as custodians, tech support staff, and safety staff, will see over 40 full-time employee cuts.

As VPS employs an estimated 2,900 people, this would cut the overall staff by almost 7%.

In a letter sent to the VPS staff and community on March 5, the district stressed it was “not mathematically possible to reach stability without impacting classrooms and other educational supports,” and there was “extensive work that happened” before they arrived at the staffing reductions.

In a follow-up letter, sent the Wednesday morning after the resolution was adopted, VPS acknowledged seeing the specific positions identified for cuts in the resolution “makes this very real,” claiming they reduced expenses “wherever legally and operationally possible” before this point, stating in part:

“These are people who serve students and families every day. This is not simply a financial adjustment, it affects our colleagues, friends, and neighbors and will impact our school communities.

Before bringing forward staffing reductions, we reduced non-personnel expenses wherever legally and operationally possible, including program closures, contract reductions, deferred purchases, and operational adjustments.

We worked to prioritize protecting classrooms, reflecting community feedback to the greatest extent possible. Even so, given that 84% of our budget supports direct classroom services, it is not possible to fully shield schools and student-facing roles from impact at this level of reductions.”

The letter concluded by noting the district and school board “remain concerned about the structure of school funding in Washington State” and foresee schools statewide continuing to face “difficult tradeoffs within restrictive budget constraints.”

Now, VPS says they will begin implementing their staffing reduction “in accordance with collective bargaining agreements and state law.” Affected employees will receive notice in the coming weeks.