Despite budget improvements after layoffs, Pajaro Valley Unified School District to look at closing some schools

Ongoing enrollment declines have spurred Pajaro Valley Unified School District to launch a multiyear plan to close and consolidate schools. 

The district’s governing board discussed the timeline and goals during its Wednesday meeting. Next month, PVUSD will form an advisory group that will consider different closure scenarios and present recommendations to the board by November. The board will then aim to implement a closure and consolidation plan during the 2027-28 year. 

Governing board member Jessica Carrasco said closures are one of several ways PUVSD is trying to ensure fiscal solvency for the district. 

“Closing schools is very scary and very hard,” she said. “None of us want to do this.”

During the district’s board meeting Wednesday, the chief budget officer described the improved finances as a result of the $15 million in layoffs the board approved in December, but added that PVUSD has “a lot of uncertainties” that will affect its financial future. Declining enrollment was at the top of that list. After that discussion of the budget, the board heard a report about enrollment projections, showing a 20% decline over the next seven years: 15,690 students this year down to 12,604 by 2032. 

District officials say the layoffs approved in December were necessary to address recent annual enrollment losses of about 500 students as well as the ending of COVID-era funds. But the annual declines of about 500 students are expected to continue, making more drastic measures likely. At the same time, the district is managing rising special education costs, federal and state funding uncertainties and higher salaries and benefits expenditures. 

Board chair Carol Turley and board member Misty Navarro said by closing and consolidating schools, they believe that resources can be better allocated to students. Navarro said many schools are “underutilized” and resources are spread out. Turley added that she understands the fears and feelings of being a parent watching their children have to switch schools after a restructuring. 

“We need to look at this as an opportunity to make our schools the best they can be and to reimagine what they can be,” she said. “I know change is scary, but if you can put it in a mind frame of making improvements for students, I think we’ll be more comforted.” 

PVUSD has 34 schools stretched across the southern part of Santa Cruz County, from Aptos to Pajaro. The Sustainable Schools Advisory – the group the district is starting to convene – will begin its planning process by first gathering information and creating profiles of each of the schools. The profiles will include how they’re being used, what their capacity is, describe enrollment projections, what the current facility needs are, the services they offer and what the optimal program model looks like at each site. 

The advisory board, made up of about 20 members, will hold biweekly livestreamed meetings starting April 14. The board will include teachers, parents, landowners, renters and administrators. It will draft a final report with recommendations and deliver it to the board for approval by November. 

Teachers union president Brandon Diniz said he’s been asking the board to take on this discussion so that community members can be informed. 

“This is gonna be challenging,” he said. “But it’s something we’re all in together.” 

The tone of his comments about the advisory board were a turn from remarks he and dozens of teachers made earlier in the meeting in protest of the layoffs and frustration over how negotiations are going with district officials. Diniz said district officials earlier this month proposed a cap on health care premiums, which teachers say amounts to a pay cut. 

For example, Diniz said, teachers who include their families on their plan have paid $90 a month. Under the district proposal, those teachers would start paying $9,000 annually. Dozens of teachers at the meeting wore red pins on their shirts that read, “no cap.” 

Cesar Chavez Middle School teacher Emily Halbig told the board that many school districts are now striking to win fully funded health care. 

“We don’t intend to be the ones fighting to win back what we already have,” she said. “We work hundreds of unpaid hours every year, we have to fight tooth and nail for even the smallest improvements to our working conditions.” 

She added that seeing fellow workers receive layoff notices has been demoralizing. Last Monday and Tuesday, Diniz said the district passed out the preliminary layoff notices to 80 teachers. He said that has been especially frustrating as the governing board moved to approve early retirements for more than 80 teachers – another strategy the district has implemented to address its deficit. 

“So if they eliminated all 80 of those people, and then they got another 80 people who are retiring. … We could go from one school year to the next losing 160 staff members from our bargaining unit,” he said. 

The governing board on Wednesday evening approved more than 160 retirements – including non-teaching staff – as part of a supplemental employee retirement plan. 

Kit Bragg, assistant superintendent human resources, said if PVUSD replaced 50% of those retirements, the district would still get a net savings of $26 million. He told the district that some of the positions will need to be replaced, but many can’t be. 

Governing board member Navarro asked how soon the district can start informing teachers who received pink slips that they won’t be losing their jobs because of the retirements. Bragg said human resources is working with principals to see where vacancies will need to be filled. 

“We’re already analyzing where people can go and where people can be brought back,” he said, adding that it’s unclear when they’ll know whether any layoffs can be avoided. 

Radhika Kirkman, chief negotiator for the teachers union, rebuked the board for approving the layoffs, saying they were unnecessary when so many staff were planning to retire. 

“We are going to need those people back and yet we just put them through a lot of hell,” she said. “Many of them may not want to stay in this district.” 

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