SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — San Diego Unified School District faces a nearly $94 million budget gap next school year.
The district says they are doing everything possible to minimize the impact on students and families, but certain staff layoffs are inevitable.
“We are looking under every single rock. No stone is going unturned when it comes to figuring out dollars available to limit the impacts of these cuts,” San Diego Unified School Board President Shana Hazan said.
Hazan said the district has been tediously combing through their budget line by line for a year now. While some cuts will come from software or supplies, most will come from staffing — which makes up most of their budget.
“We want to let the people who are impacted know first before we share the news far and wide,” said Hazan.
President Hazan says they should have the finalized list of positions cut at their Mar. 5 board meeting.
While the number of teacher positions affected hasn’t been released, dozens of administrative positions have been eliminated, according to United Administrators Southern California Executive Director Donis Coronel.
“Our union just received the official list last night,” said Coronel.
Coronel said most of the cuts she has been made aware of came from the district’s central office in an effort to limit the direct impact on classrooms. But she says there’s an indirect impact to consider.
“You still have the same amount of work; there’s just less people to do it [...] That workload impact is going to trickle down to school sites. There is no doubt about that,” Coronel said.
Hazan added that in addition to cuts, the district is also looking at ways to increase its revenue — looking at public and private funding sources to help fill some gaps.
Over the next few weeks, the district will hold a series of community listening sessions about the ongoing changes to the budget. You can get more information here.
