Quick Take
The Pajaro Valley Unified School District governing board voted again on proposals for layoffs of about 100 full-time-equivalent positions during a special meeting Tuesday evening. By majority votes, the trustees approved layoffs for about 60.55 out of the total 99.55 that were proposed. Superintendent Heather Contreras said she’s concerned about the budget and decisions the board will have to make next year to stay fiscally solvent.
After the Pajaro Valley Unified School District governing board rejected plans to lay off 100.55 full-time-equivalent positions earlier this month, trustees reversed course and approved plans to cut 60.55 full-time-equivalent positions during a special meeting Tuesday.
While the board discussed recommendations to lay off a total of 99.55 full-time-equivalent positions during the meeting, it ultimately approved 60.55 of them by majority votes in a meeting that lasted more than four hours and saw about 100 community members attend.
As with the Feb. 12 meeting, Tuesday’s meeting heard urgent pleas from teachers, students and classified staff such as warehouse workers and mental health clinicians to not make any cuts. The seven-member board rejected the cuts at the Feb. 12 meeting, but after Joy Flynn – one of the trustees who voted against them – requested a revote on the layoffs, the board convened a special meeting for Tuesday.
During this second attempt, the trustees approved layoffs for 46.3 full-time-equivalent certificated staff or teachers, 10.25 full-time-equivalent instructional assistants and an additional four full-time-equivalent certificated positions including one math director, one science director and two curriculum coaches.
Nelly Vaquera-Boggs, the teachers union president, told Lookout she’s disappointed and still thinks the district shouldn’t make any layoffs.
“We are disappointed that the trustees voted against our students and educators,” she said. “We will see layoffs amongst important roles that serve students directly.”
The layoffs the trustees approved by majority votes were recommended by district staff and Superintendent Heather Contreras. The numbers approved are just a fraction of the almost 100 total that Contreras recommended to account for the loss of one-time federal funding from the COVID-19 pandemic, for declining enrollment of the past several years and for the projected loss of 600 students into the new school year.
Student enrollment in Santa Cruz County declined about 16% to 18% over the past decade and is projected to continue declining about 18% over the next 10 years, according to the state’s Department of Finance.
The governing board rejected by majority votes layoffs for 39 full-time equivalent positions, including 29.5 for certificated staff and 9.5 classified staff during the Tuesday meeting. Those positions were recommended for layoffs by a sustainable budget team because they were funded through one-time federal dollars that are now gone.
In January, the board approved making $5 million in cuts to its budget based on the recommendations. Once the $5 million in cuts went before the board in the form of positions – at both the Feb. 12 and Tuesday meetings – the board rejected them. Trustees, including Jessica Carrasco and Gabe Medina, who opposed them said they felt the proposals would negatively affect students and the workers and that not enough district office positions were included.
Former district interim superintendent Murry Schekman attended the Tuesday meeting to voice his support for Contreras and Chief Business Officer Jenny Im, whom he worked with.
“I’m here because I believe in this district,” he told Lookout. “I’m very sad about the kind of cuts that need to be taken, but the district has been losing temporary funds and it’s just a matter of solvency.”
He said it will be a lot harder for the district if it keeps “kicking the can down the road.”
“They’re a new board and they don’t know that,” Schekman said.
The most recent addition to the board, Flynn, was appointed Jan. 31. Trustees Carrasco, Medina and Carol Turley were elected in November, and Misty Navarro was appointed in October.
At the very end of Tuesday’s meeting, Contreras addressed the trustees, telling them as she did at the end of the Feb. 12 meeting that she is concerned about the budget going forward without the approval of the layoffs.
She said those positions that weren’t approved are funded with one-time dollars that are gone and they’ll have to be brought back for consideration by the board again next year. Additionally, there were more positions that were federally funded that weren’t in this initial proposal that will also have to be added.
“But there’s more [positions],” Contreras said. “Those were just some because we were trying to take a measured approach so it wasn’t a big shock to the system.”
Contreras and other district staff reminded the community throughout the meeting that this is the first year of a three-year plan to ensure the district remains fiscally solvent. This current year focused on addressing the loss of one-time funds and declining enrollment, while future years could see consideration of proposals to retain students like expanding a school’s grade offerings from transitional kindergarten to eighth grade, rather than serving up to only sixth grade.
Trustee Daniel Dodge Jr. was absent from the meeting.
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