NASELLE — Ripple effects from the lurking closure of the Naselle Youth Camp continue to grow and are putting the Naselle School District in a particularly dire situation. Not only is the district at risk of losing nearly $700,000 in direct funding, but layoffs could be looming.

According to Superintendent Lisa Nelson, the district currently has around 11 employees working the camp, serving 29 students as of March 24; each is a contracted employee of the district and will be reabsorbed back into the district.

Pull Quote

‘This is just devastating to go through this, and we want to commit to our younger teachers too, because we know that they are going to be our future, and we don’t want to let them go in a time like now. We don’t know if we’re ever going to get them back; they will be off and doing jobs and things elsewhere.’

Superintendent Lisa Nelson

As of 2022, the district receives approximately $24,000 per youth camp student, which is adjusted each January depending on how many youth placements are at the camp. The total funding this year is about $696,000.

“If we underestimate, which is what we try to do since it is better to be under in this case than over, then OSPI (Officer of Superintendent of Public Instruction) will provide more money because our enrollment population is higher than we anticipated,” Nelson said in a March 24 interview.

Fluctuating enrollment at the camp results in the district receiving varying amounts of monthly funding from OSPI. In comparison, the district receives between $9,000 and $14,000 per regular non-NYC student.

That roughly $696,000 in funding from OSPI has to be strictly used for education at the camp, and the district is only allowed to keep about $40,000 for indirect services. The rest of the money provides salaries for the camp’s teachers, occupational education supplies, textbooks, and other programs for the students.

“The reason the NYC formula seems fairly rich for only serving about 30 students is because the Youth Camp, serving a high-poverty population of lower-level learners, qualifies for many grants,” Nelson said.

“This year, the projected revenue for the Youth Camp School, with various grants we have pursued, is about $1.6 million. Typically, it is not this much, but we were able to successfully acquire some grant funding. This helps keep people employed, even adds more jobs, and provides a great service for the residents who reside there,” she added.

Loss of kids

The much bigger issue for the district with the closing of the camp comes down to staffing and the number of enrolled students at the public schools.

Nelson anticipates that at least 10 students will depart the district due to parents losing their jobs at the camp, where employees receive a median wage of $54,000.

“So not including any enhancements, just using the $9,000 amount, that is a $90,000 loss,” Nelson said. The number could be upwards of $140,000, counting additional special funding.

Too many teachers?

On top of the loss of funding, the teachers being reabsorbed back into the district have seniority over other teachers and staff at the public schools.

The district may end up over-staffed as a result, placing it in the dire situation of exploring layoffs.

“What we plan on doing for one year, next year just work through attrition,” Nelson said. “I have probably four teachers right now who have over 30 years or are right at about 30 years [of service].”

“We will have to have a big shuffle effect, and it’s all based on seniority, and then it goes to the subject matter. So because the teachers who currently teach at the camp have seniority, they will, for the most part, based on how many have to remain to do whatever business needs to be done out there, the bulk of those teachers will transfer up to the public school.”

According to Nelson, the district has enough funds left to keep everyone employed for one year in hopes some of the senior teachers might venture into retirement. If not, layoffs would likely be coming.

“This is just devastating to go through this, and we want to commit to our younger teachers too, because we know that they are going to be our future, and we don’t want to let them go in a time like now. We don’t know if we’re ever going to get them back; they will be off and doing jobs and things elsewhere,” Nelson said.

“When we have teacher openings now, it used to be we would have a minimum of 20 and a maximum of 40 applicants. These last couple years, if we had an open elementary position, we would be lucky if we got five; there were times we only had two,” she added.

Broader impacts

Like many residents, community members and employees of the camp, Nelson is extremely concerned about what the overall impacts of the loss of the camp will mean for the community of Naselle and the rest of Pacific County.

“The Naselle Youth Camp has been in existence for 56 years, and it would be a tremendous hardship to lose this program and facility. We all know that Pacific County is fairly high when it comes to poverty and unemployment,” Nelson said.

“In addition, next door [in] Wahkiakum County, it is even worse. There are 93 employees at the Youth Camp. What a shame for our community, school district and the residents served by NYC. The effect of this will reach well within the neighborhoods of Astoria, Long Beach and the Willapa Harbor,” she added.

The camp is slated to cease operation on June 30, 2023, approximately 15 months from now, and Nelson hopes that even if the camp’s fate is sealed this year, she and others will be able to garner enough support to revive it in 2023.

“We hope that we can make enough noise that if we can save it this year, it can be brought back. It’s a leap of faith,” Nelson said.