There wasn’t an empty seat at the WCCUSD school board meeting Wednesday night as more than 250 community members showed up to fight for the programs and schools they cherish.

But in the end, after three hours of sometimes-tearful testimony from more than 100 people, including young students, the reality remained — a $42.4 million cut had to be made to help avoid a state takeover. 

After the nearly six-hour meeting the majority of the proposed cuts were unanimously approved, with some modifications, just after midnight Thursday morning. 

Betty Reid Soskin Middle School will become a Mandarin immersion school; most K-eight configurations will be phased out; and nearly 300 positions, several programs and classes will be cut next year.

These cuts aren’t the end of it. Ultimately the district must close a projected $127.2 million deficit over three years, and schools will be significantly reshaped as a result.

The district’s solvency plan was drafted by Superintendent Cheryl Cotton, who said the restructuring, while painful, is essential to stabilize the district’s finances, skirt a state take-over and have its budget certified by the county Office of Education by a state-imposed Feb. 25 deadline. Board members echoed the necessity of it before solemnly casting their “yes” votes at 12:07 a.m. Thursday.

“I know that behind every proposal are real names and real people. Many families love their K-eights. Many feel deeply connected to Betty Reid (middle school),” board clerk Demetrio Gonzalez-Hoy said before voting. “And to those families, I am truly sorry that we are in this position, and I’m hoping that this choice will actually be good long-term.” 

The fiscal solvency plan was introduced in full on Jan. 28. The school board delayed the vote so it could host community listening sessions with concerned community members.

Though trustee Jamela Smith-Folds voted yes on the modifications, she shared sharp words for her school board colleagues. Smith-Folds was one of two trustees who voted against ratifying union contracts for teachers and Teamsters because she said the district could not afford the raises they included. While several district officials said the solvency  plan was quickly formulated  (including Cotton, who said the plan to merge the middle schools was made six days before it was made public), Smith-Folds said her colleagues on the board have known about upcoming changes for months. 

“The first thing to do is to stop playing in the community’s face like there’s an alternative budget plan on the table to pay for promises the majority of you made … Stop acting like we have not seen, not only this year’s proposal, but next year’s and the third year’s … Stop pretending that we as a district have a plan or have even discussed how to build back Fund 71 or Fund 17,” Smith-Folds said, referring to funds the district is drawing from to balance its budget.

“Stop pretending the timeline did not happen where we saw multiple proposals with prices attached to them … When the majority of the board voted ‘yes’ (for the contracts) they knew that they were voting ‘yes’ to mergers, people losing their jobs, middle school shifts, programming losses and all other things. 

“We have to make opportunities out of chaos now. There is no choice, but we got here, but the way we got here was not through leadership, it was through the highway of politics,” Smith-Folds said. “Stop playing politics. You are playing with students’ lives, and it’s not OK.” 

Nearly every aspect of that plan was approved, but after 18 listening sessions, eight of which were held at the most impacted school sites, trustees made some changes.

Some programs may be saved: Band, outreach workers, Kennedy Spanish

The board refused to cut school community outreach workers from Title 1 elementary schools (schools that receive specific state funding to serve a high number of socio-economically disadvantaged students). District officials said they are working on redefining the outreach position to secure alternative funding that will keep them on campuses such as Dover, Verde, Washington and Nystrom.

The school board also said it is going to help elementary schools access  Prop. 28 funds to keep their band programs. The district receives about $4 million in Prop. 28 funds annually, and the band teachers cost about $1.5 million, according to district officials. 

School board trustees also asked the district to find a way to keep Kennedy High School’s Spanish for Spanish Speakers class, if there is notable demand. Teacher Christina Huerta, who created the curriculum for Kennedy, said students were not given the option to select those classes on their choice sheet. 

Trustees directed staff to come up with a plan to increase district-wide attendance and share that plan in the spring. 

The board also directed district staff to reestablish the contract review committee for the spring so that it can thoroughly examine jobs that the district outsources and see if it can save money by hiring in-house. 

Meeting was a full house of emotion

Wednesday’s meeting started with a packed house. There wasn’t an empty seat in DeJean Middle School’s 256-seat multipurpose room, where school board meetings are usually held, and dozens had to stand at the back of the room. 

Before the meeting, students from Fairmont Elementary school and Richmond High School played their instruments outside to showcase the strength of their music programs and protest plans to cut elementary school band funding. Richmond High’s band, which has performed at Warriors games and was recently featured in a rap star’s video, as well as Hercules High band members, dazzled spectators with renditions of popular songs such as Mac Dre’s “Thizzle Dance” and Tyler, the Creator’s song “See You Again.” 

Dozens of parents, teachers and students urged the board to save the elementary school bands, noting that WCCUSD’s award-winning high school bands and orchestra at El Cerrito High are successful because students were taught at a younger age. 

The Downer Elementary community also showed up in massive numbers. More than a dozen sixth graders asked  the board to not layoff their outreach worker, affectionately referred to as Miss. Lolita, and the school’s librarian. 

After the one-hour mark, the board tried to shorten speakers’ time limit, from two minutes to one minute. But Kennedy High School students, there to advocate for their Spanish for Spanish speakers program, refused to adhere to the limit, eventually pressuring the board to reinstate the full two minutes. 

Elias Avalos, Kennedy High senior class president, was approached by two security guards when he went over his time limit but he was unphased. Junior Gian Maldonado led a chant “Keep them (schools) open.” 

Teachers and students from Montalvin Manor K-eight spoke out against moving seventh- and eighth-graders to a traditional middle school. 

Tears shed for El Sobrante’s Betty Reid Soskin school

But the people who stayed until the very end were teachers and a parent from Betty Reid Soskin Middle School. Several teachers cried and embraced each other when the vote to move them to Pinole Middle School was announced. Others raised their voices at trustees and district staff, saying the vote was unfair and they should’ve been given more than a month’s heads up. 

“Are you all going to tell the students tomorrow that their school is shutting down?” Kenitra Mitchell asked the board. 

Promise Rose, an eighth-grade science teacher at Betty Reid, said it’s going to be difficult to face the students today, but more so having to suppress their own heartbreak, rage and sadness to shield students from the impact of the change for the rest of this school year.

“What it is, the staff has grown together. Some started their careers at that school, and they became a flourishing, dynamic community, a family, and we are now grieving the death of that family,” Rose told Richmondside after the vote. “And we have to live the next three months, four months with that grief.” 

She said the staff love their students and are worried about the seventh-graders who are going to transfer to a new, much bigger school next year. She mourned special programs at the site such as the community garden, the FabLab and the E.S.C.A.P.E Club, which takes students on outdoor field trips. 

“You have a storm of fury, a hurricane of pain, a knowledge and understanding that the district just threw off a bomb of contention between two schools who are about to do a basketball game against each other,” Rose continued. “Tomorrow is going to be full of tension, and we are going to pull out every stop of professionalism and devotion and educator trick to make it work for our students, because at the end of the day, our scholars are just as much there for us as we are for them.” 

Rose mirrored Smith-Fold’s assertion that the district knew these cuts were coming, saying it purposely waited until the last minute to announce it. The teacher worked at DeJean Middle School before moving to Betty Reid Soskin five years ago. She said she saw the district close Adams Middle and was there when West County Mandarin was initially created and shared a campus with DeJean. The Mandarin school will take over Betty Reid’s campus, which will allow the high-demand program to increase its enrollment, bringing in extra income to the district.

“I truly believe that during our previous negotiations, before even the strike and this year’s open contract, they were looking at ways to minimize the hemorrhaging that previous directors and superintendents and such have put in place for our district,” Rose said. “It is not specifically this board, but this board is the tourniquet, and the cold, hard truth is it hurts when you put a tourniquet on.” 

Associate Superintendent, Teaching and Learning, Katherine Acosta-Verprauskus said these cuts are a “redesign” that allow the district to offer a broader course of study and electives at middle schools. She said instead of two to three electives, students can have the opportunity to choose between three to four.

However, assistant vice principal Sarah Napoliello snapped back during public comment, noting that Betty Reid Soskin already offers five electives. She also urged the board to delay a middle school merger by a year so that more creative solutions could be reached. 

Others shared concerns about preserving the supportive community, transportation and preserving the legacy of the school’s namesake, a Bay Area legend who died in December at the age of 104. 

Summer Sigler, associate superintendent, K-12 school operations, said she has been in contact with Betty Reid Soskin’s daughter, who said the best way to honor her late mother is to continue having a middle school named after her, potentially hinting that Pinole Middle could be renamed Betty Reid Middle. 

“(Her daughter said) what feels most important to her is that the name stays the closest to the students who chose it, that it remains with a comprehensive middle school, even if that’s a different building,” Sigler told the board. “She also said that we could remind everyone that while the full name is Betty Reid Soskin, her favorite (name) is Betty Reid.” 

WCCUSD is looking for additional funding sources

The budget cuts come just two months after a historic four-day teachers strike that secured an 8% raise and increases in healthcare contributions not only for the teachers union, who negotiated the contract, but for all staff because of a “me too” clause in their contracts that guarantees they receive the same raises as another bargaining unit. 

Acting Associate Superintendent of Business Affairs Jeff Carter said the new contracts exacerbated the already existing deficit of $70 million by an additional $106 million over the next three years. To balance the budget, the district will deplete its Fund 17 reserve and take $13 million annually from its Fund 71 reserve that is used to fund retiree benefits, leaving a remaining $127 million in cuts.  

Carter said the district is: Looking for additional revenue funding sources, including attendance recovery, which could bring in $3-4 million; introducing seven to 10 new transitional kindergarten classes to offset declining enrollment, which could bring in $1 million; potentially selling vacant district buildings to secure roughly $17 million in one-time funds; and asking residents to renew the parcel tax in an upcoming election.

If the community rejects the parcel tax renewal, however, the district would need to make an additional $8 million in cuts, according to Carter. 

The district is also set to receive millions of dollars in one-time and ongoing funds from the state because of the anticipated budget surplus. However, Carter said those dollars will be used to replenish Funds 71 and 17. 

District officials said major reasons for WCCUSD’s ongoing financial crisis is declining enrollment and average daily attendance (which directly impacts revenue it receives from the state) and skyrocketing special education costs. 

Over the past several years, WCCUSD has made millions of dollars in cuts annually. Last January, the board approved $19.7 million in reductions for the 24-25 school year which included a $5.6 million reduction of contracts and services and a $14.1 million staffing reduction, according to Cotton’s superintendent report. 

WCCUSD is not alone in its financial struggles. This week, San Jose Unified laid out its plan to close nine elementary schools, citing budget constraints due to declining enrollment. Sacramento City Unified faces a $113 million deficit and has a fiscal solvency plan that will save $44 million. Oakland Unified and Berkeley Unified educators are looking to strike soon and San Francisco Unified teachers went on strike on Monday. 

Jane Magid, the band director for Mira Vista and Fairmont Elementary Schools, said while she fervently disagrees with the cuts, the multiple fiscal crises point to structural issues statewide.

“California, as a state, is a No. 4 global economy. We do not have a money problem. We don’t have a wealth problem. We have a priority problem,” Magid told the school board. “I understand that west Contra Costa is tasked with solving this problem here, but we are not alone. Districts in the region are right behind.”