Faced with the prospect of losing local control over its budget, the West Contra Costa Unified School District Board of Education agreed to cut about 169 staff positions, saving a few on the chopping block.
In an effort to stave off a state or county takeover, trustees agreed to cut about 85 certified positions while retaining about seven full-time secondary teachers and a psychologist position that was previously proposed to be eliminated. They also voted to cut 84 classified positions with the caveat that staff seek out grant funding to bring some back.
The positions set to be cut are nearly 50 special education paraprofessionals, about two dozen teachers, another two dozen English language development reading coaches, a dozen instructional aides, social work specialists, speech and language pathologists, program assistants and specialists, and administrators.
Staffing cuts are necessary to abide by a fiscal solvency plan the district entered into with the Contra Costa County Office of Education, Interim Superintendent Kim Moses said during the Feb. 26 meeting.
The solvency plan was drafted and adopted after a May 2024 report by the state Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team found that the district’s declining enrollment and deficit spending put it at high risk of fiscal insolvency.
About 69% of the district’s budget comes from Local Control Funding Formula funds which are state dollars provided to districts to provide a base level of education for students along with additional grants for students learning English or living in poverty, homelessness or foster care.
Another 19% comes from other state dollars, 7% from federal funds and 5% from local funds.
The plan calls for about $7 million in budget cuts for fiscal year 2025-26 and another $6 million in cuts in fiscal year 2026-27. Those reductions would be in addition to about $19 million in budget cuts made ahead of the 2024-25 school year. As a result, the district received a positive budget certification, but it heavily relied on $37 million in reserve funds.
Not all positions cut under the recent decision equate to staff firings. Of the certified positions, 43 are currently vacant with an additional 40 retirements and 27 resignations that have already been submitted. Another 79 classified positions are currently vacant.
But firings will happen. Moses said a decision needed to be made by last Friday to give staff time to draft and send pink slips to employees whose service would no longer be needed by March 15. If the district did not meet that deadline, they’d have to find ways to cover the cost of those positions within the general fund.
“We are not doing things to our staff. We are not doing things to our students. We are trying to make difficult decisions for our stability as a district. If this resolution doesn’t move forward, we’re not in a position to do that,” Moses said.
Despite recognizing the district’s struggling financial realities, approving the proposed cuts was a challenging decision for trustees who went back and forth during the meeting negotiating potential ways to retain educators and support staff.
Board Vice President Demetrio Gonzalez Hoy initially attempted to save speech pathologists, counselors and some career and technical education teachers, in addition to saving full-time secondary teachers.
He argued the staffing cuts would result in reduced class schedules that would most negatively impact English language learners and special education students who need to take additional courses that don’t apply to college admission requirements.
“I don’t disagree with the finances. What I do disagree with are our priorities,” Gonzalez Hoy said. “We’re not looking at it with an equity lens in my opinion.”
Public sentiment was largely on Gonzalez Hoy’s side during last week’s meeting. Dozens implored trustees to not approve the cuts.
Some shared concerns students would lose access to beloved electives, workloads for teachers and staff would increase to unmanageable levels, students in need of support services would be forced to wait even longer than they already do for additional help and core courses would continue to be taught by substitutes instead of qualified professionals.
“This district showed me that it did not value me as a student when I attended here. I continued to fight for it to value me as a teacher and now as a parent I’m fighting for you not to cut these teaching positions because it will show us you do not value our children and their futures either,” said Cristina Kountz, a teacher at Betty Reid Soskin Middle School. “We as a community deserve so much more.”
Sky Nelson, a teacher at El Cerrito High School and a parent in the district, said he stepped in to help teach physics for a long-term substitute teacher who did not have the expertise to teach the course. Long blocks are vital for properly teaching the class, he said, asserting that schedule and block decisions should be left up to individual schools, not the district as the result of cuts.
“We can do a lot with very little. I think the students love the class. I can’t do that with half blocks,” Nelson said.
After rounds of motions, Gonzalez Hoy partially won out and trustees landed on a compromise. The psychologists and counselors would go and about seven teachers would stay along with a psychologist.
But roughly $1.7 million in cost savings will still need to be made somewhere else, Moses said. Finding those reductions may not be guaranteed and if the district is unable to make the necessary cuts or find funding to fill the gaps, Moses said an oversight review would likely be triggered.
“I would ask that you implore our partners to work with us to find a way in which to accomplish what we all want to happen without it costing us $1.75 million,” Moses said. “I don’t believe this will be responsible for us to do because it impacts so many people. I think there’s another way.”