After a decade of declining enrollment, Roseburg Schools is facing a growing mismatch between the number of students it serves and the elementary school system built to serve them. At the same time, aging facilities require increasing investment, operating costs continue to rise, and lower enrollment at some schools is making it more difficult to organize classrooms and staffing in ways that best support students.

After an extensive review of these interconnected factors, Superintendent Jared Cordon is recommending that the district consolidate its elementary school system from eight schools to seven by closing Fir Grove Elementary at the conclusion of the 2026-27 school year.

If approved by the Roseburg School Board, Fir Grove students would remain at their current school for the rest of this school year and transition to nearby elementary schools beginning in 2027-28. Proposed receiving schools include Eastwood, Hucrest and Fullerton elementary schools.

The recommendation is detailed in Aligning to Thrive: Planning for Student Success, Now and in the Future, which examines six factors shaping the district’s long-term planning: student experience and educational opportunity, declining enrollment, elementary school capacity, aging school facilities, financial pressures and stewarding taxpayer dollars. Together, these factors consider how the district can provide the strongest educational experience possible while building a school system that is appropriately sized, financially sustainable and positioned to serve students now and in the future.

“This recommendation is not a judgment about Fir Grove, its students, staff or families,” Cordon said. “Fir Grove is a strong school community that has served generations of Roseburg students. I recognize how difficult it is to consider closing a school that means so much to so many people. My responsibility is also to look at our elementary system as a whole and recommend what I believe will best position Roseburg Schools to serve students now and in the future.”

Why Alignment is Needed

Roseburg Schools enrolled 5,221 students in September 2026, nearly 11% fewer than a decade ago. Independent demographic forecasts also project substantially fewer young children in Douglas County over the next decade.

The district currently operates eight elementary schools with a combined functional capacity of approximately 3,295 students. Those schools served approximately 2,434 students in 2025-26, meaning the elementary system was operating at about 74% of its combined functional capacity. Fir Grove is currently operating at 54% capacity. 

But the recommendation is not based simply on how many students can fit inside district buildings. Enrollment changes also affect the educational experience. At smaller schools, some grades have only one classroom teacher, reducing flexibility to balance class sizes and opportunities for teachers to collaborate with grade-level colleagues. Lower enrollment can also result in blended-grade classrooms.

Concentrating enrollment across seven elementary schools would provide greater flexibility to organize classroom sections, strengthen grade-level teaching teams and align staffing and resources around student needs.

At the same time, Roseburg Schools is balancing significant facility and financial pressures. State facility assessments identify approximately $116.2 million in anticipated needs across district schools over the next 10 years, including approximately $47.7 million at elementary schools. Those estimates reflect deferred maintenance and the projected repair or replacement of existing building systems, not major modernization or improvements. The district considers these estimates a conservative planning baseline rather than a ceiling on future facility needs.

Roseburg voters last approved a capital improvement bond in 2000. Since then, the district has relied on grants, General Fund resources and other available funding to address facility needs. The district also reduced its 2026-27 budget by approximately $4.5 million as it responded to declining enrollment, reductions in some grant funding and rising costs.

Together, these conditions require the district to consider whether continuing to operate and invest in more elementary capacity than it reasonably expects to need is the best long-term use of limited public resources.

“Maintaining the system exactly as it exists today is also a choice, and it carries both operating and long-term facility costs,” Cordon said. “We have a responsibility to use the public resources entrusted to us carefully and to consider where those resources can have the greatest impact for students.”

Why Fir Grove?

The recommendation follows several years of facilities study and long-range planning, including School Board tours of every district campus, a district facilities review, educational adequacy work, state facility assessments and the work of the Community Facilities Advisory Committee.

Cordon also evaluated different consolidation configurations based on student experience, enrollment and capacity, facility needs, financial sustainability, transportation and geography, and impacts on people and school communities.

No single factor determined the recommendation. Compared with other options analyzed, consolidating Fir Grove would affect fewer students, allow students to be accommodated at nearby schools with available capacity, avoid additional transportation costs and reduce significant long-term facility investment needs.

Fir Grove currently serves approximately 200 students. Under the proposed configuration, current Fir Grove students could be accommodated at Eastwood, Hucrest and Fullerton elementary schools without adding transportation costs or creating long bus rides. Proposed boundary changes would also limit the number of students outside the current Fir Grove attendance area who would need to change schools.

After the proposed boundary adjustments, Eastwood is projected to operate at approximately 91% of functional capacity, Hucrest at 90% and Fullerton at 77%.

Facility needs were also a consideration. State assessments identify approximately $8.5 million in anticipated needs at Fir Grove over the next 10 years to maintain existing building systems. Fir Grove has also not received some of the extensive capital improvements made at other district schools, including a major seismic rehabilitation.

Based on current staffing levels and anticipated staff transitions, the superintendent estimates consolidation could reduce annual General Fund expenditures by approximately $1.3 million. Final savings would depend on future staffing decisions.

Those savings should not be viewed as additional money that would accumulate in district reserves. Declining enrollment and rising costs are expected to absorb much of the savings, reducing the amount the district might otherwise need to cut or redirect from other priorities.

Recommendation Begins Board Consideration

The superintendent’s recommendation is not a final decision.

The School Board will review the report and supporting information, receive public input and consider the impacts of consolidation before determining whether to move forward.

The district’s goal is to reach a final decision prior to the end of 2026. If consolidation is approved, Fir Grove would remain open through the end of the 2026-27 school year, providing several months for transition planning.

Students and families would have opportunities to visit their new schools, meet staff and connect with their new school communities before the 2027-28 school year. The district would also work closely with Fir Grove employees as staffing plans are developed and, where staffing needs and assignments allow, seek opportunities for familiar staff members to transition with students.

The district would also work with the Fir Grove community to recognize the school’s history and the generations of students, staff and families who have been part of it.
Community members can review the complete Aligning to Thrive: Planning for Student Success, Now and in the Future recommendation report, find frequently asked questions and submit questions on our Aligning to Thrive webpage.