San Diego Unified finalizing layoffs to close $93.7M budget shortfall
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — Contending with a $93.7 million budget deficit heading into the next school year, San Diego Unified School District officials have begun to finalize plans to layoff dozens of staff members, a union representative told FOX 5 earlier this week.
The school district, which has more than 12,000 staff across administrative departments and classroom instruction, has attributed the budget shortfall, in part, to the drying up of funds from federal COVID-era assistance programs.
“It was not a surprise, we’ve been through this before,” Donis Coronel, executive director for United Administrators Southern California, said to FOX5SanDiego.com. United Administrators is the union representing central office staff and other administrators.
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While the extent of the layoffs across the district is unclear at this time, Coronel says district officials notified their union on Monday that about 10% of the roughly 600 administrative positions under her bargaining unit will be eliminated.
According to Coronel, this includes classroom and other school support roles, such as instructional coordinators, program managers and resources teachers. A small number of impacted positions, she said, were held vacant by the district anticipating cutbacks.
District officials have voiced commitments to keep the layoffs as far away from the classroom as possible, although Coronel says it is inevitable school sites will be affected.
“Those that are left standing at the central office will be absorbing quite a bit of work and then there is no way to keep it from trickling down and affecting school sites … It’s a given,” Coronel said.
“Now, our principals and associate principals are superstars, they will make sure that our kids are fine, and that they get everything they need,” she continued. “It’s just gonna be a little tougher, because the resources aren’t going to be available as quick as they typically are.”
Some of the staff whose positions will be eliminated may be able remain employed in the district, either through the “bumping process” to transfer to another role based on seniority or by applying for an open job. However, Coronel says this could also reverberate past administration.
“That causes a bit of chaos,” she said. “For every one position that’s cut, let’s just say a school site had to cut a school clerk, usually three to four people are affected by that bump.”
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School board officials are anticipated to vote on a notice for employees of the possible layoffs at a meeting early next month, allowing the district to finalize a list of impacted jobs. State law requires districts to issue notices for layoffs moving into the next school year by March 15.
On top of reducing staffing, the school will also be drawing from its reserves to close their budget shortfall.
In a budget presentation on Friday, the school board was informed the district’s savings are anticipated to dwindle from $163 million during the 2022 to 2023 school year to about $49 million heading into 2025 — just above the 2% reserve level mandated by state law.
FOX 5 reached out to SDUSD, but did not receive a response prior to publication.
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