Why this matters
San Diego Unified School District is California’s second-largest school district and the largest in the county, with more than 100,000 students enrolled last year.
The little girl, wearing a pink top covered with cartoon cats and her hair held back by an orange hair tie, could barely reach the microphone. But that didn’t stop the second grader from making her plea to the San Diego Unified board.
“I love learning Mandarin and Barnard is the only public school (in San Diego Unified) with a Chinese program,” the girl said during a meeting last month. “Please do not cut important resources for my school. I don’t have Mandarin speakers at home besides my little sister who is in kindergarten at Barnard.”
Parents drive across the county so their child can attend the dual immersion program at Barnard Elementary in Pacific Beach. Several said that it was the only reason they’re attending the district. Now, hundreds of layoffs that the board approved this week mean the program — and an array of other services for the more than 100,000 children the district serves — could have gaps.
From bus drivers to teachers, the district estimates it will lay off 250 employees and eliminate 484 positions, including ones that are vacant or filled by temporary workers. However, the district won’t have the final number of laid-off employees until May 15.
The district’s projected deficit has ballooned to $93 million and still won’t fully address the shortfall. Even with the job cuts, it still faces a roughly $25 million hole next year.
Among the eliminated jobs: A resource teacher position at Barnard, despite parents’ lobbying in recent weeks and their concerns on how the district will fill this role’s responsibilities.
“In the end our students will suffer,” said Jeanette Woodward, Barnard’s PTA president.
District leaders acknowledged that questions remain, including how San Diego Unified will continue the same amount of work with fewer people — and how it will address its ongoing deficit. The district also projects a $164 million shortfall for the 2025-26 year.
Of the job eliminations, 250 are classified and 234 are certificated. Certificated employees have some type of a teaching credential and include teachers and most administrators. A teaching credential is not required for classified employees, which include custodians, instructional aides and more.
“We try to keep the cuts away from our students as much as possible and to some people, unfortunately, it isn’t perceived that way. But I think we’re doing the best job we can,” said board member Sabrina Bazzo.
The largest district in the county, San Diego Unified has a more than $1 billion operating budget, with about 95% of the unrestricted budget spent on employee salaries and benefits.
The district received nearly $840 million in one-time payments during the COVID-19 pandemic to help combat declining student enrollment and high rates of absences. That funding is drying up while those problems — both of which help determine the district’s funding levels — persist.
Megan Glynn, vice president of the district’s bargaining unit for office, technical and business services employees, said her office once employed seven people. After a couple rounds of layoffs beginning in 2017, she’s the only one that remains, she said.
“How quickly we went from essential to the fat, not the muscle,” Glynn said. “Just because the positions are gone doesn’t mean the work is gone.”
Despite board members projecting the budget deficit, district employees received a 10% retroactive raise and a 5% bump this year under new collective bargaining agreements — costing an additional $517 million over a three-year period.
But the teachers union argues the raises have not contributed to the budget woes, pointing to recent financial reports showing the district is projected to spend less on teacher salaries than originally planned. The latest projections show the district will spend roughly $850,000 less on certificated salaries for the 2024-25 school year, but spend over $9 million more for the 2025-26 year than it had anticipated in December.
The union instead has called for the district to consider other options, including tapping into reserves and saving money elsewhere — for example, reviewing what it called “significant bloat” in allocations for books and supplies.
Board members on Tuesday also voted to approve the latest financial report with a positive certification, meaning the district can say with confidence that it will be able to meet its financial obligations for the current and subsequent two years.
Board Trustee Richard Barrera encouraged his colleagues to vote for a positive certification, adding that the alternative would be to surrender control to state officials “who are not accountable to the San Diego community.”
Drew Rowlands, deputy superintendent of operations, said the district still awaits the governor’s revised budget in May and assured board members that they will be able to balance its budget for the 2025-26 school year.
Site and department leaders will be notifying impacted employees beginning March 8.
The decision will affect those early in their career, the very people the district has been trying to attract, board Vice President Cody Petterson said, his voice cracking with emotion.
“We’re going to have to go to war on this thing for funding at the state and federal level,” he said.
Other districts in the county are also facing funding cuts. Last week, the Chula Vista Elementary School District voted to eliminate over 100 positions, while the South Bay Union School District’s enrollment declines have been so severe that it’s considering closing schools.
Type of Content
News: Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
