WCCUSD school board OKs budget that cuts positions, could increase class sizes

Editor’s note: This story was updated June 30 to correct that class sizes are being discussed as part of ongoing teacher-district negotiations, and any potential increase will be reflected in the final contract.

The WCCUSD school board on Wednesday unanimously approved its $458 million 2025-26 budget, a plan that cuts educator jobs; could increase class sizes in grades four through six; and depletes one of its reserve funds. 

The board also unanimously approved its  Local Control Accountability Plan, a guide to how it will serve its most vulnerable student populations.

The union had expressed concerns to Richmondside in recent weeks about the district’s financial situation, saying the LCAP’s goals include reducing classroom sizes and that the district isn’t making smart spending decisions. “(This budget) is a betrayal of WCCUSD students and families,” Francisco Ortiz, president of the teachers union, told Richmondside before Wednesday’s meeting. “They’re defunding classrooms, disrespecting educators, and they’re abandoning the very students they claim to serve.”

Ortiz said the district is “painting another year’s narrative of financial calamity,” while continuing to stockpile more money than is required in its reserves. He says the district should instead invest in educators because that will translate to better student outcomes.

However, district officials say they are in a tight fiscal position because state COVID funds are expiring and they’re receiving less money from the state overall while operating costs are rising, particularly in special education. State funding is down because of declines in enrollment and daily attendance rates.

David Hart, the district’s superintendent of business services, in a presentation to the WCCUSD board on June 4, said that the district is exhausting its “Fund 17” reserve to balance its budget — a special reserve that holds funds beyond the required reserve minimum to provide a financial buffer.  At the beginning of the 2024-25 school year, Fund 17 held $37 million. By 2026-27, that money will be gone, according to WCCUSD budget documents. 

The district will still have its regular reserves, which exceed the state requirements. WCCUSD has $24 million in its unrestricted reserve fund and $101 million in a restricted reserve fund, according to the most recent review. The state’s minimum reserve requirement for economic uncertainty is 3%, which would be about $15 million. 

Hart also said the district expects to face structural budget deficits until at least 2028. 

“I know the district has been down this path. However, the reserves are a hedge against risk,” Hart said. “The use of the fund (17) balance in this instance, for the district in its current state, is warranted.” 

The real issue is figuring out how the district will replenish its reserves and solve for issues that are driving the deficit, Hart said.  

Hart on Wednesday told the board the district’s budget is variable and things can change quickly for the better or worse. He noted that if attendance is increased by just 1%, the district would receive $3 million in state funding. 

“I’m confident that the budget practices in the district are prudent,” Hart told the board.

A March 2024 Fiscal Health Risk Analysis, conducted by an independent firm, found that between 2021 and 2024 the district had improved its financial practices in a number of categories, suggesting “likely improvements in the district’s processes and procedures.”

However, there were a number of best practices the district was said to not be following, such as “forecasting its general fund cash flow for the current and subsequent year and updating it as needed to ensure cash flow needs are known.”

To the following fiscal health questions, the analysis said the answers were “no:”

• Is the district avoiding deficit spending in the current fiscal year?
• Is the district projected to avoid deficit spending in both of the two subsequent fiscal years?
• If the district has deficit spending in the current or two subsequent fiscal years, has the board approved and implemented a plan to reduce and/or eliminate deficit spending to ensure fiscal solvency?

Ortiz told Richmondside Fund 17 is like a “vacation savings account.” The district spending that money, when it still has its other reserve funds, is not as serious as it sounds because those reserves grow annually. 

He also questions why the district is spending more than it projected on contractors. Union officials said it won’t be known how that money was spent until September, when the district reports its recent financial spending, but it estimates that the district spent about $39 million more on contractors than was originally budgeted. 

Student Trustee Jorge Espinoza, who sits on the board, said at Wednesday’s meeting that most school districts spend about 5% of their budget on contractors, while WCCUSD spends more than 13%. 

Hart responded  that it could be for many reasons. For example, some districts have in-house attorneys, which may be reflected in lower consulting costs, unlike WCCUSD. Hart also said the district has had difficulties filling special education positions, so these roles are contracted out. 

“We have multiple vendors that we work with for insurance or other related expertise, auditors, what have you,” Hart said. “Without doing a side-by-side, I’m only going to be able to offer conjecture. What I can say is that the prices we pay for those services, I believe to be competitive. I believe that we can always improve, but I’m not seeing a disproportionate amount.”

In previous years, said Mark Mitchell, the executive director of the teachers union, in an interview with Richmondside, WCCUSD has contracted for language pathologists and special education teachers (which are among roles that are vacant within the district), and has hired contract lawyers to handle what the union says have been numerous special education lawsuits.

Guthrie Fleischman, the district’s special education local plan area director, said disability-act lawsuits have increased nationwide, so this is not unique to WCCUSD. 

Ortiz said hiring contract employees is not as effective as investing in its own educators. He noted that one of the speech pathologist programs is based in Chile. The district has long acknowledged that it has a difficult time recruiting and training properly qualified employees and teachers.

Before voting on the budget, trustee Demetrio Gonzales-Hoy said the district needs to analyze  consultant costs and find a way to reduce spending. Board President Leslie Reckler said the district needs to identify why special education expenditures have increased by 29% over the last year, when overall enrollment only increased by 1%. 

Richmondside emailed, texted and called WCCUSD numerous times for its response to the union’s criticisms but did not receive a response as of publication time. However, the district responded to some of the union questions raised in this article during the June 25 board meeting. 

District says it can’t afford to spend state-required minimum on classrooms

The union is also concerned that the district plans to continue spending less than the state requires in its classrooms, a category that includes educator salaries. California school districts are required to spend at least 55% of their budgets on classroom expenses, but WCCUSD only spent 52.36% of its budget for this category in the 2023-24 school year. That equates to $11 million in educator compensation. In 2022-23, the district spent 51.34% of its budget on classrooms, about $14.9 million less than the state minimum. 

WCCUSD in past years has requested waivers to the state classroom spending minimum from the Contra Costa County Board of Education, noting that meeting the 55% requirement creates “a serious hardship to the district.”

Hart told the board Wednesday it’s likely the district will request a waiver for this underspending for the 2024-25 school year as well.

He said the reason the district has not met this requirement during the past four years is because the influx of one-time state COVID funds altered the denominator by which that 55% is calculated. The district had more money, but those dollars were restricted, so they could not always be used to meet that classroom threshold. 

Mitchell, who spoke to the board during Wednesday’s public comment session, said it’s disingenuous to blame COVID funds because other districts that received COVID dollars, were able to meet the threshold. 

The district’s path to balanced budgets hasn’t been easy. Last year, it failed to approve a budget on time and faced threats of a state and/or county takeover, with community members furious about what they said was a lack of transparency and communication. This year has been a smoother process, with the district securing a “positive rating” from the Contra Costa County Board of Education for its financial plan. 

It has already made $19.7 million in cuts this past academic year and has said it must cut an additional $7.3 million this upcoming school year. Part of those cuts included leaving 43 positions unfilled. The district has laid off one counselor and is transferring 16 educators, some of whom were math or language coaches, to fulltime classroom teaching roles to fill the vacancies. 

Teacher shortages leave 10 classrooms at Peres without a permanent teacher, union says

Mitchell told Richmondside there are more than 100 teaching vacancies in the district. At Peres K-8 School, alone, he said, there are 10 teacher vacancies.

This means students could end up with a rotation of substitute teachers, which many parents have said happens too often at other schools and is harmful to student performance and attendance. At one point a group of school supporters filed a lawsuit seeking to force the district to staff classrooms with properly credentialed teachers, but a judge ruled in favor of the district, commenting that the district can’t force someone to work there.

“In order to get students back (in classrooms) and families (to) trust in our schools, we have to have teachers in every classroom,” Mitchell told Richmondside. “We can’t have children showing up to nobody there, and being split from their friends every day into different classrooms. It leads to lack of attendance or commitment to our district, and then that leads to more families going to charters.” 

WCCUSD students perform far below the state average on standardized tests. Mitchell said one of the clearest solutions is to pay educators more, not only to retain teachers, but to attract more teachers. Over the past three years, 561 educators have left and 57 intend to resign by the end of June, according to data from the union. 

The teachers union commissioned a report from the School Services of California that found that WCCUSD teachers, who on average make $91,375 a year, are paid less than teachers at most other East Bay school districts and less than the state average, which is $100,226. The report compares salaries from 2023-24, which is the most recent available data.

On average, WCCUSD ranks 18 out of 19 area districts when it comes to total compensation (salary along with health and welfare benefits). (Walnut Creek Elementary School District ranked slightly below WCCUSD.)

United Teachers of Richmond is currently negotiating its salaries. The union asked for a 5% salary increase, and the district countered with a 0% increase, Mitchell said. The union’s contract is supposed to be approved by June 30, but Mitchell said district officials told him they don’t anticipate any agreement will be reached this year. 

Ortiz said district officials told the union there will only be $600,000 budgeted for raises. 

“$600,000 is the equivalent of an outside contractor for anti-racism and the salary for Kim Moses (former interim superintendent),” Ortiz said. “So that’s telling us that folks who are not connected to the classroom have more investment than the educators who are working with our students day in and day out.”

WCCUSD also faces a substitute teacher shortage, because substitute teachers can make more money working for other school districts, according to Mitchell. 

At the previous board meeting, where officials discussed the budget, teachers told the board they feel overworked and undervalued. 

Along with their pay concerns, teachers are worried about WCCUSD’s proposal to increase class sizes from 30 to 32 students for grades four through six. Jeffrey Bean, a fifth-grade teacher at Shannon Elementary in Pinole, said the district is undoing all of its progress. Bean said 10 years ago the district reduced class sizes from 33 students. 

“I’ve had 33 students in my classroom. I’ve had 27. There is a big difference. It allows me more time to reach every student,” Bean told the school board. “And the reason students stay in our district is because they have teachers and other staff members who know and care about them.”

Christopher MacLean, a sixth-grade teacher at Dover Elementary in San Pablo, said he barely has enough space for 30 students in his classroom. Having even two extra students would make the environment more difficult for everyone.