PVUSD board rejects staff reduction plans

The Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees on Wednesday rejected a pair of staff recommendations to cut roughly 100 teacher and school employee positions, a move district officials said will cause greater financial peril in the future.

Opponents of the cuts disagreed, saying the district should look for different ways to reduce the budget and keep cuts away from employees and the classroom.

Trustees Gabriel Medina, Daniel Dodge, Jr., Jessica Carrasco and Joy Flynn voted both proposals down. 

The decisions came after hours of public comment, during which dozens of teachers, students and community members implored the board to not make the cuts.

On the table were two proposals, the first of which called for cutting roughly 19 classified positions, including 10 instructional assistants.

The second called for cuts to about 80 certificated positions, including 12 elementary release teachers, eight elementary intervention teachers, four high school science teachers and two visual and performing arts teachers.

Some of those cuts were expected. During a meeting on Jan. 15, the board followed a recommendation by the Sustainable Budget Team (SBT) to cut more than $5 million to help the district “right-size” its budget after the loss of one-time funding that came from the state during the Covid-19 pandemic.

This included a $750,000 cut to the District Office and $600,000 to academic coordinator positions, also called assistant principals. It also included a $1.3 million cut to elementary school release teacher positions.

The trustees made separate $500,000 cuts to intervention teachers, mental health clinicians and socio-emotional counselors.

“We added positions with dollars that no longer exist,” PVUSD Superintendent Heather Contreras told reporters during a press conference on Tuesday. “So technically we can no longer afford those positions.”

But the cuts on the table Wednesday far exceeded those recommended by the SBT, a fact that drew hundreds of people to a rally in front of the Watsonville government building, and to pack the City Council Chambers for the board meeting, which lasted past midnight.

“If this is something that needed to be considered because of declining enrollment, it would have been nice to have that clearly articulated and represented,” said Cesar Chavez Middle School teacher Katie Crockett. “I think there are a lot of other cuts that can happen before you cut teacher positions.”

Contreras said that many of the additional recommended cuts were necessary due to declining enrollment, a statewide problem with an average annual 8% decline.

The problem is far worse in Santa Cruz County, which is facing a 16% decline, she said. PVUSD is expected to lose 600 students next year.

Because funding from the state is directly tied to the number of students, that amounts to a loss of millions of dollars from the general fund.

“That’s a lot of students, and that equates to quite a bit in funding,” she said. “That’s the budget we need to run our program on.”

But Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers Negotiations Chair  Brandon Diniz was skeptical of those claims, saying that the district is projected to have a $30 million budget reserve at the end of the three-year budget cycle.

“The state doesn’t take over school districts that have a healthy reserve like we do, which is a reserve on top of a reserve,” he said. “That’s what school districts look at to make sure, ‘are we making fiscally responsible decisions?’ and I think there’s room to do that without such stark layoffs,” he said. 

PVUSD Chief Business Officer Jenny Im acknowledged that the first interim budget report in December showed a $56 million reserve, which is 17% of the overall $326 million budget.

While that is above the minimum 3% reserve set by state law, Im cautioned that the district needs a cushion to help navigate financial crises.

She pointed out that the Local Control Funding Formula—which the state uses to fund schools—saw a $10 million reduction from last year.

“Everyone up here…especially Dr. Contreras, needs to be looking three, five, 10 years down the road,” Im said. 

Watsonville High School history teacher Bobby Pelz said the district should stop calling the reductions “right-sizing.”

“Because there is absolutely nothing right about laying off teachers,” Pelz said. “There is nothing right about eliminating mental health supports, and there is nothing right about putting the budget cuts on our students by maxing out class sizes.”

Pelz also asked the superintendent to “get creative” in looking for ways to trim the budget.

Contreras said that finding places to trim the budget is not that easy.

“These are really hard decisions, I agree 100%,” she said. “But we added positions with one-time dollars. We have very steep declining enrollment. We have not addressed either of those things, and right now our budget has 93% in salary and benefits. so when we talk about being creative in making reductions, we only have 7% of our budget to be creative around.”

State law requires school districts to notify employees by March 15 of any layoffs.

While Contreras said that none will likely occur this year, the district must now look to adjust its budget in other ways. And while this year’s budget will probably pencil out, Contreras stressed that will likely not be the case in the 2025-26 school year, when it will have to make double the number of reductions.

“Supporting our superintendent is supporting our students, because I don’t know any superintendent who would not do what they’re doing if not for our students,” Board President Olivia Flores said after the vote.In other action, the board approved a proposal to offer a one-time $10,000 retirement incentive for teachers who are 60 years or older.