Quick Take
Live Oak School District’s governing board approved a plan at its Wednesday meeting that officials say will fix its $2 million budget deficit and restore its reserves. Union leadership told Lookout they’re devastated for the staff who will lose jobs.
The Live Oak School District governing board approved a nearly $2 million plan to balance the district’s $25 million budget during a three-hour Wednesday board meeting that went without the contentiousness seen during meetings last year when the district went through cuts.
About $1.2 million of this year’s plan includes reductions to the district’s personnel, including classroom aides and intervention teachers focused on helping struggling students keep up with lessons. Some of those cuts would include positions currently unfilled.
Diana Susoy, president of the union that represents about 100 classified employees in the district including those aides, candidly told Lookout that she hates these cuts.
“I see the numbers of our classified staff dropping, and it’s a hard pill to swallow,” she said.
Susoy said despite the pain of the cuts, she appreciates the inclusiveness and transparency of this year’s process compared to the “shock and awe” of the cuts under the prior superintendent.
This year, district Superintendent Pat Sánchez came up with the budget-cut plan after seeking input from an advisory group, union representatives, parents and other district community members. The plan proposes cutting a total of $1,974,947 for the 2025-26 fiscal year budget, a figure that includes the $1.2 million in personnel reductions and about $209,000 in revenue generation, contract savings and other reductions. It also proposes shifting funding sources for general fund expenses totaling about $570,000 to grants and other funds.
Now with the approval, the district will meet state-mandated deadlines to inform employees of potential layoffs by March 15 and to make final decisions of layoffs by May 15. District officials say they hope the budget outlook will improve and that they won’t have to follow through with all of the cuts, but some people will likely lose their jobs.
At Wednesday’s board meeting, which about 30 people attended in person at the district office conference room, a consultant went through each item Sánchez proposed. The consultant, Kate Lane of Ryland Strategic Business Consulting, said that in addition to solving the budget shortfall, the plan also helps improve the reserves, or the amount of money left over after expenses and revenues are calculated
“The plan before you is intended to both cure your deficit as well as begin to restore reserves,” Lane said. “I can’t overstress the importance of reserves. When you have some reserves, it means that you have some time to think, some time to react, some time to come up with creative solutions. When you have no reserves, you are forced to make immediate decisions, and unfortunately, that is where the district is.”
She added, however, that the district could continue to face financial challenges in the future due to projected declining enrollment.
“I would love to just be completely and totally optimistic, but I do see the potential for continued problems on the horizon,” Lane said. “You have a continued decline in enrollment, that means a continued loss in funding, and it means that you have to [be] ever-constantly monitoring what are your staffing ratios.”
Governing board trustees Tammy Summers and Kristin Pfotenhauer, Sánchez and at least two people who spoke during public comment said the district should start to have discussions on the potential for either closing schools or consolidating the district with another neighboring district in order to address declining enrollment and the loss of funding.
Sánchez said the financial challenges are leading the district to look at all options available and he’ll look into consolidation and closure questions. He said the board would need data before it could make informed decisions.
“I think specific to school closure, school consolidation, we have identified someone that can help us do an enrollment study,” he said. “Kind of looking at the trends and who’s coming in and going out, what is our stability, what do projections look like? We think we can do that relatively soon.”
Lauren Pomrantz, co-president of the teachers union, told Lookout that school closure and consolidation are long-term projects and important issues to consider, but they won’t address the immediate needs of the district community.
“We need the school board and superintendent to stay focused on the impact of these cuts and find ways to support staff and students,” she said. “We do not need our leaders to be distracted at this critical point in our process of rebuilding.”
While Pomrantz and Susoy said they’re devastated by the cuts, they feel that compared to last year’s process, the budget discussions this year have been more transparent.
“After losing many positions district-wide last spring, the cuts this year are deep and will impact every student across the district,” said Pomrantz. “Despite these cuts, the district leadership and school board have created a transparent and collaborative process to fully understand the reasons behind the need for the cuts as well as to have a voice about which cuts to prioritize.”
Governing board trustee Felicita Rasul was absent.
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