The Lake Oswego School District heads into the upcoming school year without staff reductions for the first time in two years, but with a reserve fund balance thinner than any in recent memory.
The school board meets July 13 for its first session since adopting the new budget on June 22.
No agenda has been publicly posted for the meeting.
Budget holds steady after last year's cuts
The 2026-27 budget, totaling $378,125,003, keeps class sizes and staffing levels roughly the same as 2025-26, according to the Lake Oswego Review. That's a sharp contrast to the previous budget cycle, when the district cut $10 million and eliminated 67 positions.
The district's unappropriated ending fund balance sits at $4.895 million, smaller than in previous years because administrators have drawn on reserves to cover shortfalls.
Superintendent Jennifer Schiele said maintaining current service levels "was not a given, but the result of careful planning and difficult decisions," and called on the state to increase per-pupil funding.
The budget includes $128.5 million for the General Fund and $182 million for capital improvement projects. The district's local option levy, passed by voters for nearly 30 years, provides 15% of the annual operating budget, enough to fund more than 105 full-time educators.
New middle school enters second year
Students will return in September to the rebuilt Lake Oswego Middle School at 2500 Country Club Road for the building's second year of operation. The $85 million campus, the final project of the district's 2021 capital construction bond, opened during the 2025-26 school year.
More than 800 people attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday, May 11. The Class of 2030 completed the annual balloon crossing to Lake Oswego High School on Friday, June 12, becoming the first eighth-grade class to graduate from the fully rebuilt facility.
"We were on or ahead of schedule the entire time," Tony Vandenberg, the district's executive director of project management, told the Lake Oswego Review.
The campus features a two-wing design connected by a skybridge called the "Ecotone," which houses the library on its second floor with views of Mt. Hood. A public courtyard uses basalt slabs and iron mountain ore inspired by Lake Oswego's industrial history.
Forest Hills, Lake Grove bond status unclear
The school board authorized a $245 million capital construction bond for the Tuesday, November 4, 2025 election that would replace Forest Hills and Lake Grove Elementary Schools, the district's two oldest buildings, both constructed in the 1940s. The measure would also update career-technical education and STEM learning spaces. The estimated tax rate would not exceed $2.90 per $1,000 of assessed property value.
No confirmed election result or construction timeline for Forest Hills or Lake Grove was available in district records as of Monday, July 13.
Key dates for families
The LOSD Activities Fair is scheduled for Thursday, August 6. The board's next two meetings are Monday, August 10 and Monday, August 24, according to the district calendar.
