Tigard-Tualatin School District posted the steepest enrollment decline among large Portland-area districts last school year. The 3.6% drop helped drive a budget shortfall that forced the board to cut 21 staff positions in April.

Now a neighboring district's crisis is showing where that trajectory can lead. Beaverton School District, which shares Washington County's shrinking population pipeline, lost 13% of its students over seven years and faces a budget gap of up to $46 million, The Oregonian first reported Thursday, Oct. 15.

TTSD's school board voted April 6 to eliminate about 21 positions and cut $912,000 in school services to close part of a $5.5 million deficit, Tualatin Life reported. That gap later grew to as much as $7.2 million after state and local funding revisions, according to district spokesperson Dan Pulaski.

"None of us want to do this, but we all know we have to do this," TTSD Board Chair Jill Zurschmeide said at the April 6 meeting. "This is what the grownups in the room have to do."

Superintendent Iton Udosenata cited both budget shortfalls and declining enrollment. He said most of the 21 eliminated positions would be absorbed through retirements and departures, according to Tualatin Life.

TTSD's enrollment decline outpaced every other large metro-area district in the 2025-26 school year, according to state data reported by The Oregonian in February. KATU reported in September that TTSD is one of seven of Oregon's 10 largest districts now at their lowest enrollment in at least 17 years.

In Beaverton, Superintendent Tony Smith launched a two-year process that could lead to school closures, boundary changes and building consolidations. Enrollment there fell from 41,374 students in fall 2019 to 36,187 this fall, a loss of nearly 5,200 students.

Smith projected a $42 million budget gap for the 2027-28 school year and $46 million for 2028-29.

Robert McCracken, Beaverton's demographics and facility planning specialist, cited Intel's layoffs as a factor in the decline. He told the Beaverton school board that Intel layoffs have reduced the number of people moving into Oregon and Washington County in particular.

Intel employed about 23,000 Oregonians as recently as 2024 but has cut that to roughly 16,000, mostly in Washington County, The Oregonian reported in July.

Manufacturing employment in the county dropped 7%, or about 3,500 jobs, since March 2025, according to Oregon Employment Department workforce analyst Brannigan Vogt, who spoke to OPB in May. Vogt said he is hopeful the downward trend has ended but does not expect it to reverse.

TTSD's adopted budget for 2025-26 showed about $178 million in revenue against more than $180 million in expenses. Salaries accounted for roughly $88 million, according to Tualatin Life.

Chief Financial Officer Jessica Seay warned at a TTSD board meeting in May 2025 that the district could no longer rely on reserves without making cuts. The 2025-26 budget drew $1.3 million from reserves, she said, leaving a 7% ending fund balance.

Whether TTSD will face the kind of school closure discussions now underway in Beaverton, Portland and Salem remains an open question. No public statements from TTSD leadership have addressed that possibility.

The next TTSD school board meeting is 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 26, at the TTSD Training Center, 9550 SW Murdock St., Tigard.