Kindergartners Olive Duke, from bottom left, and Leonel Bernabe de la Rosa use building block tools, which make up one of several centers students work at in their dual-immersion kindergarten class at Bear Creek Elementary School in Bend.

The failure of the Bend-La Pine Schools levy in May was felt when schools opened this school year.

Before the levy lost, Superintendent Steve Cook told us that the levy’s failure would mean a loss in jobs in the district for this school year. We wanted to find out if that really happened.

It did.

The district cut 53 positions. Of that, 32 were full-time classroom teachers. There were 17 classified positions cut, including two custodians, five transportation employees and eight educational assistants. Four administrative positions were cut — one each in human resources, safety, online school and career readiness.

Another 13.53 “full-time equivalent” teaching positions were cut just because of enrollment declines.

Then there was an additional 10% cut out of discretionary budgets for schools across the district. That money goes to things “such as supplies, printing costs, hosting family events, travel expenses and staff training,” the district told us.

That’s where the district landed to achieve its target of reducing this year’s budget by 3%. Federal COVID relief funds were ending. Pay and insurance costs aren’t going down. And decreasing enrollment means reductions in state funding, too.

What do the cuts mean for education and conditions in the school?

That’s not easy to quantify.

The district did tell us class sizes may rise a bit. Enrollment at the start of this school year and last didn’t change much. From September 2023 until September 2024, it had a drop of less than 1%. Total enrollment in schools and programs was 17,157 on Sept. 12, 2023. It was 17,022 on Sept. 10, 2024.

Looking to the future, the district anticipates making more staff cuts before the next school year. The district projects it may have to cut an additional 120 positions. That may change depending on what happens with school funding in the Legislature and the outcome of additional bargaining with its unions.

But the district told us, if the levy had passed, it would have retained the 53 positions. It would have added the electives, student supports and career and technical training as promised in the levy.

It would have been a district that was offering more to students, instead of one that will be challenged to offer the same.