Superintendent of Schools Susan Halliday told the Philomath School Board Thursday night that a new executive order from Gov. Tina Kotek on student instructional time arrived with enough unanswered questions that district officials still need time to work through what it will mean locally.
The governor’s office released the order Thursday, presenting it to the State Board of Education earlier in the day before making the accompanying rules public later that afternoon.
The order bars Oregon school districts from shortening the school year to cut costs, avoid layoffs or close budget gaps. It requires districts that have already cut school days this year for budget reasons to restore them by the 2027-28 school year. It also changes state rules on instructional time by no longer allowing districts to count teacher professional development or parent-teacher conferences toward instructional hours.
Under the order, even districts that trimmed school days but still met or exceeded Oregon’s minimum instructional hours — 900 hours for kindergarten through eighth grade, 990 hours for ninth through 11th grade, and 966 hours for high school seniors — would need to return to the number of school days offered before any cuts.
The order also immediately ends the Oregon Department of Education’s use of instructional time waivers that allow some districts to fall below mandated minimums, unless an emergency has been declared.
“Too many Oregon students are not getting the time in the classroom they need to succeed,” Kotek said in a news release. “We cannot expect better outcomes if we continue to give our students less time to learn.”
In an FAQ accompanying the order, Kotek suggested she is open to tapping the Education Stability Fund to help districts with one-time budget issues so they can comply. The governor can declare an economic emergency to access the fund, as can the Legislature if two-thirds of each chamber agree.
Halliday told board members that Philomath has historically stayed on the right side of the instructional time requirement, but not by a wide margin in recent years.
“In the way that we’ve calculated, Philomath has been close in some places, but never been out of compliance with instructional minutes, and we’re not going to change that in terms of the next year,” she said.
One of the biggest open questions, she said, is how the state will define instructional time going forward.
“When we calculate instructional time, I have calculated it based on from the time class starts — passing time is not included, lunch time is not included, break time is not included. It’s actual instructional time that comes together to calculate that,” Halliday said. “In some of the information that just came out today (Thursday) in their plan rule, it says it’s a bell-to-bell time count. So we’re saying, what is it?”
She said the shift could cut in both directions for Philomath. The state appears to want to scale back the ability to count parent-teacher conference time as instructional time, but a bell-to-bell count would pick up passing periods and other minutes the district has not previously included.
“If we’ve got other minutes that count that we haven’t anticipated before, then it could be that it’s just a wash,” Halliday said. “We just don’t know until we get into it.”
Halliday said she planned to travel to Portland on Friday for a meeting with state superintendents and expected the order to be a central topic.
Board Chair Tom Klipfel asked where Philomath has historically landed against the instructional time requirement.
“It’s been close in some instances but we’ve always been over,” Halliday said.
“I know at one time we were significantly above,” Klipfel said.
“And we’re not … we don’t have a lot of wiggle room,” Halliday replied.
“When we moved to half days on Fridays for professional development, that’s when we lost a big chunk of that,” Klipfel said.
“We did, and that was a part of it, of making the decision of how to do it is what would that mean for instructional time,” Halliday said.
“So this seems like it will be a crucial topic next month,” Klipfel said.
“Absolutely,” Halliday replied.
Statewide, reaction to the order has split. The Coalition of Oregon School Administrators, which represents 2,500 school administrators, said in a statement that it shares the governor’s concern about lost class time but cautioned that prohibiting districts from adjusting schedules to preserve staff could undermine instructional quality in the name of quantity. The group said the order adds another challenge for districts already contending with declining enrollment, rising Public Employees Retirement System obligations and higher operating costs.
Enrique Farrera, president of the Oregon Education Association, the state’s largest teachers’ union, signaled the union may challenge the order in court and criticized the lack of union or teacher input before it was issued.
“If needed, we will use any tool we have to challenge this order,” Farrera said in a statement published by Oregon Capital Chronicle. He added that districts facing budget pressure have sometimes had to choose between eliminating positions and reducing school days. “More days in school cannot compensate for the loss of a trusted adult who knows a child’s name and believes in their future.”
Halliday told the Philomath board she wanted to flag the order early given how much attention it is likely to draw.
“I wanted to put it out there because it was released today (Thursday), because it’s going to be of high interest to a lot of people,” she said.
