WCCUSD’s school board is scheduled to make its final decision Wednesday on cutting the equivalent of about 300 positions to help reduce a major budget deficit.
Earlier this year, the district approved sending reduction in force, or RIF, notices to affected employees, warning them they could be laid off as part of an effort to eliminate WCCUSD’s $127.2 million deficit over the next three years.
About a third of the positions are grant-funded and could be spared if additional funding comes through, board Clerk Demetrio Gonzales-Hoy told Richmondside. A third of the positions are vacant, including 63 special education paraprofessional positions. But dozens of employees, including about 50 Teamsters, still face either losing their jobs entirely or seeing their hours reduced.
If you go
What: The school board will vote on a final list staff and position reductions.
When: Wed., May 13. The public portion of the meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. See the agenda for details.
Where: DeJean Middle School, 3400 Macdonald Ave., Richmond. If you can’t attend in person you can follow along online.
More info.: See the district’s lists of at-risk positions for classified roles and certificated positions (credentialed educators and administrators).
District documents estimate the reductions will save $87 million. Not much has changed from the district’s initial plan approved in February, but some positions and programs may be saved.
The board had considered eliminating De Anza High School’s Air Force Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (AFJROTC) program, but the course will now remain fully funded because enough students enrolled to fill five sections.
“The De Anza AFJROTC program has always been a source of pride for this community, and I am glad we can preserve it,” Superintendent Cheryl Cotton said in an email sent to the school community May 8. “I am grateful to everyone who worked to make that possible.”
The district may also be able to keep seven out of the 10 elementary school music teaching positions it planned to cut after grant funding sunsetted thanks to new savings discovered by an ad hoc contract review committee that’s been meeting since March.
The committee identified about $1.8 million in savings, including about $1 million of which could be used to preserve the music positions at several schools.
About $485,000 of the savings identified by the committee are restricted funds, so the committee is proposing using those dollars (in addition to $486,000 in unrestricted funds) to help replenish the district’s reserves. To balance the budget, WCCUSD will deplete its Fund 17 dollars in the next three years and pull $13 million annually from Fund 71 (a post employee benefits account).
Gonzales-Hoy said the contract committee wants to use $215,000 to fund the proposed 2.4 full-time equivalent positions at Kennedy High School at risk of being cut. Under the district’s original plan, several Kennedy teachers were at risk of having their hours reduced, which would’ve impacted two of its four Pathway programs (health and technology), journalism and other electives.
The contract committee is also hoping to use $171,000 to retain the theater manager position that was also on the proposed layoff list, which would help support theater programs across all WCCUSD schools.
Kennedy High community rallies to save ethnic studies program
Because of the budget cuts, Kennedy was also considering laying off its ethnic studies teacher and eliminating that course — a move widely criticized by dozens of teachers, students and alumni who have been attending every school board meeting since to advocate for saving the class.
“We think it’s the right thing to do. Even if it’s just for one of our high schools, it is one of the highest-needs schools,” Gonzales-Hoy said. “We have to do a balance of both, obviously, reducing our deficit while also not destroying our schools. Because long term, I think if we lose more kids because of the cuts that we’re making, (our budget deficit) is definitely going to grow because we don’t have the kids going to our schools.”
The board is expected to vote Wednesday on the proposed staffing reductions and the contract review committee’s recommendations as district leaders weigh how to stabilize WCCUSD’s finances without further shrinking programs that families say are essential.
Editor’s note: The story was updated to reflect new information about the contract review committee’s recommendations.
It is disingenuous for the Board to characterize the Music positions as “grant funded”. These positions were previously funded by LCAP before being shifted to Block Grant funding, which was always limited in scope & duration. They were never intended to be a permanent source of salary. One of the top 5 rules of school district finance is you don’t move personnel to one-time funds! The people sitting in the CBO chair at WCCUSD have been playing fast and loose to keep all of the balls in the air for too long.