Last month, the Oregon School Boards Association lost one of its largest members, Salem-Keizer Public Schools. With more than 40,000 students, the district is the second largest in the state, and its defection is a significant blow to the organization, which provides services ranging from legislative lobbying to insurance discounts.

It’s too soon to know whether Salem-Keizer’s move marks the beginning of a trend, though Portland Public Schools, the state’s largest district, is reportedly considering a similar move. With school budgets tight, districts across the state are searching for ways to make cuts, and even costs like OSBA dues can fall victim — as they did in Salem-Keizer.

Though the OSBA has more than 190 members, half of the state’s student population resides in just 13 districts, among them Portland, Salem-Keizer and Bend-La Pine. Defections like Salem-Keizer’s thus have an outsized impact.

Bend-La Pine Superintendent Ron Wilkinson understands the risk of a lobbying organization losing its biggest members, and so its influence. Salem-Keizer’s absence will not, by itself, weaken the group substantially.

“That’s something I’ll monitor over time,” Wilkinson said, adding that the decision to stay in or leave OSBA belongs to the Bend-La Pine School Board.

Meanwhile, Bend-La Pine has come to rely in part on its own board members and staff to lobby legislators, in part because district officials sometimes disagree with the OSBA. Bend-La Pine, for instance, backed recently passed legislation that will make the governor the Superintendent of Public Instruction. The OSBA argued against the bill.

That kind of disagreement, along with fiscal concerns, helped push the Salem-Keizer School Board to vote against renewing its OSBA membership.

After eliminating about 400 positions in recent budget cuts, the board also wanted to save money and chose not to pay more than $18,000 in annual OSBA dues, according to Jay Remy, the district’s director of communications.

Policy disputes are nothing new for OSBA members, but losing a district the size of Salem-Keizer is unusual, said OSBA Executive Director Kevin McCann. In the last two years, OSBA lost one small district with about 100 students, McCann said. Other than that, no districts have left OSBA during McCann’s seven years on the job.

McCann believes OSBA will retain its influence, even if he is unsure exactly what the ramifications are of Salem-Keizer’s move.

“We go on with our business,” he said. “We’re so inexperienced at dealing with this (loss), I’m not entirely sure what it means.”

McCann has heard that the Portland district is considering leaving OSBA, but that has not been finalized. Portland Public Schools could not be reached for comment. Bend-La Pine appears to be a solid member, though.

Other than OSBA’s lobbying influence, a major reason for Bend-La Pine to stay with OSBA is the organization’s insurance discount. The district buys its property and casualty insurance through OSBA, saving about $45,000 a year. Bend-La Pine paid about $11,000 in OSBA dues last year.

“From a practical fiscal standpoint, it pays for itself,” Wilkinson said.

Even Bend-La Pine School Board member Nori Juba, an outspoken critic of OSBA, said the district should stay a member if just for the financial benefit. A former member of the OSBA Board of Directors, Juba said OSBA has not backed what he believes are important education reform measures, like the recently passed legislation.

With so many members, OSBA ends up pushing for the “status quo,” Juba said, and so Bend-La Pine will have to look elsewhere to push its legislative agenda.

“At the end of the day, lobbying on our own is just as effective,” Juba said.

Bend-La Pine, along with districts around the state, have benefited from OSBA in other ways, too. The organization keeps districts up to date on statewide legal and policy changes. That work has helped standardize how policies across Oregon are written, said John Rexford, deputy superintendent of Bend-La Pine Schools.

Bend-La Pine typically uses the OSBA language as a starting point when writing a new policy, but smaller districts sometimes use the language unchanged.

“I think they’re a real resource for a smaller school district,” Rexford said.