Majority of San Diego County’s largest school districts cutting jobs amid budget shortfalls

It’s not just San Diego Unified — other school districts across the region are facing massive budget shortfalls, prompting them to eliminate hundreds of vacant positions and issue dozens of layoff notices.

Each of San Diego County’s 10 largest districts is facing a deficit next year as schools grapple with continued enrollment declines, the loss of COVID-19 pandemic money that boosted their budgets and the state’s own financial troubles. Five of the county’s largest districts have issued layoff notices and seven have eliminated job positions, according to budget records that inewsource reviewed.

Teachers, counselors, bus drivers and others are among those receiving pink slips. So far, 566 layoffs have been reported among the 10 largest districts, the majority of them at San Diego Unified, but the final number won’t be known until mid-May.

Pandemic funding — such as the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, or ESSER — gave districts an unprecedented surge in money and kept afloat schools that were already struggling with budget shortfalls and declining student enrollment. For other schools, the funding allowed for additional resources to help students recover academically, including providing tutoring and hiring more teachers.  

That means some districts will get hit harder than others as that funding dries up, including high-poverty schools that received more money per student and those that used it to cover pay raises and new hires, said Marguerite Roza, director of the research center Edunomics Lab .

Roza said during a webinar last month that on average, districts across the U.S. have added staff despite losing students. Since the pandemic, staffing in school districts has increased by about 2% nationwide while student enrollment has decreased by 2%. 

“When districts get new money, one thing they’ve always done is hire new people, hire more people … I have heard from a lot of districts who thought once we’ve hired these people, I’m pretty sure that the state or the federal government won’t let us lay them all off and they’ll give us some more money. And that was risky,” she said. 

Locally, several of the larger districts — including San Diego Unified, Grossmont, Oceanside and Cajon Valley — have approved salary increases amid money troubles. 

Board members at three of those districts gave themselves raises, too. Despite a $77 million shortfall next year, the Sweetwater Union board approved a 5% increase to members’ annual pay. Grossmont and Cajon Valley also bumped up their boards’ pay as they projected $21.6 million and $9 million deficits, respectively. 

The San Diego Education Association has argued that the district’s recent 15% wage increase for teachers is “not a contributing factor” to its budget shortfall.” The union has urged board members to consider dipping into reserves and seeking cuts elsewhere, including decreasing its “bloated” budget for books and supplies. 

The main source of funding for schools remains the state budget. Under what’s known as Proposition 98, districts and community colleges are guaranteed a minimum level of dollars.  

But California now faces a budget deficit after a tax deadline extension meant lawmakers adopted a budget without knowing the state’s true revenue numbers, said Erik Saucedo, senior policy analyst at the California Budget and Policy Center. 

That resulted in a roughly $8 billion funding gap for education, he said.

“Those dollars where we have a gap already went out to school districts, so it would be logistically difficult to basically pull any of that money back,” Saucedo said. “The state is trying to see how do we basically keep districts whole for 2022-23 without having any interruptions to any services, but still addressing that gap.” 

California is not the only state to be dealing with financial woes, Saucedo said, and added that school districts across the nation that received additional COVID-19 federal funding will see significant impacts. New York, Louisiana, Minnesota, Alaska, Connecticut, Hawaii and Utah are among the states facing the challenge of making cuts to education spending. 

California lawmakers voted earlier this month to reduce the budget by $17 billion, but it will take further work to close the state’s budget deficit projected between $38 billion and $73 billion next year. 

Districts that are unable to meet their financial obligations could be at risk of state receivership, similar to a bankruptcy process. That would mean a district would be forced to take out a state loan and transfer governance authority to the county superintendent. 

The state receivership process, however, only happens when the district requests it. Just nine districts and one community college have resorted to receivership in the last 32 years, with four remaining in some type of receivership status, said Michael Fine, CEO of the state’s Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, or FCMAT. 

FCMAT does not expect an increase in state receivership, but has seen a rise in the number of school districts that have approved their budget with a qualified or negative certification — meaning officials believe they may not meet or will be unable to meet their financial obligations for the rest of the current year or subsequent year, respectively.

Saucedo said minimum funding level estimates for next year and the 2025-26 year show slight growth, “which is generally good news.” However, projections continue to change and more will be known when the latest budget revision is released around May, he said.