West Linn-Wilsonville Education 4 All

03/15/2026

Let’s recognize our educators and community members! Know someone in WLWV with outstanding leadership, service, and innovation?

Nominees may include:

Clackamas ESD staff members
Employees of Clackamas ESD component school districts
Board members
Students
Community partners

You already know someone who deserves to be recognized. ✨
Someone who leads with purpose. 🌟
Someone who serves with heart. 💙
Someone who brings new ideas to life for students and communities. 💡
Nominate them for a Clackamas ESD Mission Award by April 15.
https://www.clackesd.org/annual-leadership-service-and-innovation-awards/

12/18/2025

Last year, the district reduced primary teaching positions in response to primary enrollment declines since the pandemic.

We are asking whether central administrative costs should also be reviewed for alignment with current enrollment levels and reported inflation.

Community members are encouraged to attend tonight’s board meeting at Athey Creek Middle School at 4:30 to share feedback and request that the board consider directing the administration to:

Produce at least one balanced budget proposal that does not:
• Cut teachers
• Close schools
• Close programs
Many families would like to see an option that prioritizes non-student-facing, discretionary spending reductions as part of the budget discussion.

Note: All numbers are from current, publicly posted expenditures from ODE.

12/17/2025

Mark your calendars - the WLWV School Board Special Meeting to discuss and vote on the Superintendent's recommendations will take place this Thursday, Dec. 18 at 4:30pm at Athey Creek Middle School. If you are unable to attend in person, a link to watch online will appear here on the day of the meeting: https://www.wlwv.k12.or.us/school-board/board-meeting-schedule

12/12/2025

What impacts to your school do you want to understand before the Board votes on whether to keep schools open or close them?

Academic & Classroom:
How big would my school be?
What would class sizes be?
How many teachers would we have?
Would there be a change in how many hours librarians, music teachers, and PE teachers are at my school?

Transitions & Boundaries:
Would this change which middle school my school feeds into?
What would the rough boundaries look like?
Would existing students would need to be moved to make room for incoming students?

Programs & Activities:
Would more spots open up in after school childcare?
Where would sports practices be?

Special Education & Support:
How many students with IEPs would each learning specialist have?
How many paraeducators would there be?
Would we have more nursing time?

Transportation & Logistics:
How long would bus rides be?
How much traffic would be in the neighborhood around the school?
Would this affect lunch time for students?

Staffing & Resources:
Would we have an assistant principal?
Would we have a change in front office staff?
Would there be another custodian?
Would there be more nutrition service employees?
Would there be another learning specialist? Instructional coordinator?

What matters to YOU that isn’t listed here? Add your own questions below.

12/06/2025

The WLWV school district proposed two main solutions for a forecasted budget shortfall: closing schools and ending programs for the district’s youngest students. In listening sessions in December 2025, some community members supported the district proposal. Others suggested other ways the district could approach their forecasted shortfall and enrollment projections. Below are alternative solutions shared by our communities at the listening sessions and in emails to the board. Please comment below with other ideas you’d like the district to consider to raise enrollment numbers, reduce spending, or gain additional revenue:

Note: This information has been provided by community members and has not been independently verified. Individual solutions here are not endorsed by WLWVEd4All - we just wanted to share as many community ideas as possible!

Marketing and Enrollment
We should be seeing this enrollment decline as a warning sign and something we should be doing everything to avoid by marketing, programs and outreach.

The district is losing millions in long-term enrollment by neglecting preschool - the start of the pipeline. Improve marketing for preschool to help build our enrollment base. Launch a social media campaign to tell families about our preschool options.

Improve the district’s website to make it more engaging for families considering enrolling students in the district and easier to use and find information. Make sure all enrollment links on the website work and are easy to find.

Have more open houses for preschool and K-5 and make sure they occur and make sure they occur at the right times parents are making decision around private schools and are marketed widely.

Consider ways to make preschool hours work better for working parents, including offering more full day programs and considering wrap around care. A robust Pre-K program will attract new families.

Do more work with Oregon programs such as Preschool Promise and ERDC that help qualifying families cover most or all of preschool costs to make our district’s preschool programs more accessible for more families.

Redistrict with soft boundaries to keep all primary schools in the 300-400 student range where research shows students learn best and have the greatest emotional well being. This may not solve the budget but it does improve educational experience.

Additional Revenue
Do Fee for Service Medicaid billing for all students that qualify to be reimbursed for services to students the district already provides.

Invite and educate parents about Medicaid eligibility based on disability not income.

Encourage all parents to be screened for free and reduced lunch at registration to capture real counts and opportunities for the district.

Facility rentals - renting gyms, auditoriums and fields to community groups, sports leagues and for events - is a real revenue opportunity that is not being fully utilized. If staffing is the barrier, build those costs directly into rental fees.

Welcome outside enrichment programs into schools. Parents already pay for private enrichment in arts, STEM, academics and athletics. Why not offer these programs on-site and keep that revenue in the district? Lake Oswego partners with private enrichment providers, and parents have enthusiastically embraced those opportunities.

Consider tuition-based student transfers. Allowing students from neighboring districts to pay tuition to enroll in under-enrolled primary schools and Riverside High School if they are not released by their district, especially given WLWV School District’s strong reputation and excellent academics could increase both enrollment and revenue. Lake Oswego offers a tuition-based transfer option for $11,500 per student. Why not consider a similar model?

Partner with Established Preschools. The largest preschool in Clackamas County - just one mile from Stafford - lost its building and has nowhere local to go next year. They are very interested in renting preschool space from the district within existing schools and have reached out to the district.

Work to have more accurate ending fund balance forecasts. Have a board policy of a minimum ending fund policy (Lake Oswego’s is 8% (see p.28) so there are not larger than needed ending fund balances (18.8 million last year in ending fund balance).

Cutting Costs
Implement a temporary salary freeze for district administrators.

Cap or have a maximum percentage that central administration costs can take up of the overall general fund amount. We currently sit at 6.5%, but most districts this size are around 4-5% of personnel being admin.

Hire an outside budget analyst to analyze all budget costs and revenue for savings and revenue opportunities, focusing first on the costs which have the least impact on students and teachers.

Consider smaller bonds in the future that focus on maintaining existing schools and instead raise the levy for teachers.

Consider closing the central district offices and moving central administration into an existing school.

Consider if there are ways to renegotiate outside contracts to reduce district costs.

Provide more transparency on cost savings for closing schools. Show the district’s back up calculations on these savings and whether national studies on how much districts generally save on closing schools or the experiences of neighboring districts have been considered. Consider closing one primary school if you can provide transparency around actual savings.

Examine high school extracurricular salary increases and travel budgets and why they have significantly increased since last year.

See more on each solution here: https://www.wlwved4all.org/community-ideas-from-listening-sessions

12/06/2025

https://www.kptv.com/2025/12/05/west-linn-wilsonville-sd-considers-closing-2-schools-part-major-budget-reduction-plan/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

The West Linn-Wilsonville School District is considering closing two elementary schools as part of a $10 million budget cut.

12/05/2025

https://www.koin.com/local/clackamas-county/proposal-to-close-2-west-linn-wilsonville-schools-not-the-answer-parents-say/

West Linn, Ore. (KOIN) — Parents in the West Linn–Wilsonville School District demanded answers this week after the district announced it was considering closing two schools and cutting several sign…

12/04/2025

https://www.kgw.com/article/news/education/west-linn-wilsonville-school-district-closing-multiple-schools/283-89e7505b-a805-4d71-8278-5c49b4903999

Families said that the district had previously promised not to re-visit the idea of school closures for at least two years.

12/04/2025

Why aren't all options on the table before WLWV proposes more teacher cuts and closing schools?

Suggested Solution: The school board could hire a Budget Analyst skilled in public school funding to do a thorough, independent analysis of areas that could be reduced in the WLWV school district budget as well as areas we are not capturing all funding that is available. The analysis could look for:

- Possible areas to cut that have less impact on students and teachers (central admin, travel expenses, materials and supplies, outside contracts, etc...)

- Areas in the budget that have significantly increased in the last year or years.

- Areas where WLWV school district is not on par with surrounding districts in gaining revenue or in spending.

A review by community members of the 2025/26 school budget has already found:
1. Salary increases from 2024-25 (an approximate $789,000 increase):
a) High school extracurricular salaries have increased over $730,000 (a 44% increase with no change in FTE)
b) Director of Student Support Services (Classified Salaries and Administrators) salaries have increased over $45,000 (a 6% increase with no change in FTE)
c) The Executive Administration classified and administrator salaries have increased over $14,000 (no change in FTE)

2. Athletics and Activities transportation budget has increased over $430,000 since last year.

3. Travel Stipends, Expenses, and Out-Of-District travel are costing over $330,000 this year.

4. High school extracurricular Supplies and Materials costs have increased over $100,000 since 2022.

5. Computer Software has increased over $800,000 from 2022

TOTAL INCREASES THAT COULD BE CONSIDERED FOR REDUCTION: $2.449,000

Source: https://www.wlwv.k12.or.us/departments/business-office/budget-information

12/04/2025

Why aren't all options on the table before WLWV proposes more teacher cuts and closing schools?

Solution: The school board hires a Budget Analyst skilled in public school funding to do a thorough, independent analysis of areas that could be reduced in the WLWV school district budget as well as areas we are not capturing all funding that is available. The analysis could look for:

Possible areas to cut that have less impact on students and teachers (central admin, travel expenses, materials and supplies, outside contracts, etc...)

Areas in the budget that have significantly increased in the last year or years.

Areas where WLWV school district is not on par with surrounding districts in gaining revenue or in spending.

A review by community members of the 2025/26 school budget has already found:
1. Salary increases from 2024-25 (an approximate $789,000 increase)
a) High school extracurricular salaries have increased over $730,000 (a 44%
increase with no change in FTE)
b) Director of Student Support Services (Classified Salaries and Administrators)
salaries have increased over $45,000 (a 6% increase with no change in FTE)
c) The Executive Administration classified and administrator salaries have
increased over $14,000 (no change in FTE)
2. Athletics and Activities transportation budget has increased over $430,000 since last
year.
3. Travel Stipends, Expenses, and Out-Of-District travel are costing over $330,000 this
year.
4. High school extracurricular Supplies and Materials costs have increased
over $100,000 since 2022.
5. Computer Software has increased over $800,000 from 2022

TOTAL INCREASES THAT COULD BE CONSIDERED FOR REDUCTION: $2.449,000

Source: https://www.wlwv.k12.or.us/departments/business-office/budget-information