Cash for covid relief has stopped flowing and that means San Diego Unified has to tighten its belt. NBC 7’s Joey Safchik reports what the cost might be for some district employees.
The San Diego Unified School District, facing a $93.7 million budget shortfall heading into the next school year, has begun laying off staff.
The deficit is due, in large part, to the sunset of pandemic funds, according to the president of the school board, Shana Hazan. To date, the district received more than $500 million in funds. It's not clear how much, if any of that remains, or what percentage of the budget shortfall had been made up by pandemic funds in the past.
Hazan said the district's goal was to keep cuts as far from the classroom as possible. That led to the central office, according to Donis Coronel, executive director of United Administrators Southern California, the union representing administrators. She expects at least 10% of her 600 members' jobs to be cut.
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"The work still has to be done," said Coronel. "So it's going to trickle to either those who remain standing at central office, and it will definitely trickle to the school sites. There's no doubt."
Hazan said the district will not adopt a final budget until June: "The reality is we are still waiting on a final budget from the state"
Hazan told NBC 7 the district is already looking where it can shift qualified personnel whose jobs are on the chopping block. The district would not comment on specific layoffs or position cuts.
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"Our team is going through, position by position by position, to figure out how we can address some shortfalls we have in staffing and minimize the impacts on the staff that we currently have," Hazan said.
Although some 90% of the district's general budget goes to staffing costs, Hazan said the district is also looking to bridge the budget gap by cutting some pandemic services that are no longer purposeful or did not have the intended impact.
"It really is going through, line by line by line, in our budget and thinking about what do these dollars mean for our kids? Where can we afford to cut and where can't we?” said Hazan. "At the end of the day, dollars have to go away. Difficult cuts have to be made. But by communicating clearly, being transparent, every single step of the way.”
The projected cuts coming next year are in the wake of the school district giving teachers a 15% pay raise (10% for this school year and retroactive to July 2022, and 5% for next year).
According to the district website, 13,559 people are employed by the city school system, with nearly 6,000 teachers in campus classrooms.
