February 25, 2020
To All Parents and Guardians of MBUSD Students,
Last Friday we published the Board agenda for the February 26, 2020 Board meeting. It contains one of the most difficult items we have had in my ten years as your superintendent. The first action item on the agenda is to lay off 38.5 positions in the district. School districts are required to notify employees of a layoff prior to March 15. If approved by the Board, this will reduce district expenditures by $3.5 million. Our district has not had this kind of layoff since 2007 and 2008. Unfortunately, given our fiscal state, these cuts are necessary, and very upsetting. The results will impact our students and many of the people we care for in this district.
I have written to you several times about the budget challenges we are facing that are forcing this reduction. Our budget challenges are similar to challenges being faced by districts across the state, including declining enrollment, increasing special education costs, increased pension costs, increases in employee health benefit costs, and a state funding formula that is leveling off in its increases. In Manhattan Beach, this is compounded by the fact that the state’s funding formula places MBUSD at the very bottom of districts in the state in terms of our funding. In the last few years the district has pared down non-personnel costs such as textbooks, professional development, and technology. If you have not read the details and want to see them, I encourage you to go to our
Budget News and Information
page which has been on our website since mid-January. None of those challenges have gone away, and we are left with little choice but to make these reductions.
In our recent Board meetings, we have spent much time discussing next year’s budget shortfall and how we should address it. Board members suggested that instead of eliminating entire programs, we should examine the option to partially reduce programs. My recommendation to the Board reduces some programs partially, and some in their entirety. The Board has also expressed a strong desire to examine ways to increase revenue in the years to come. We are looking at those options as well, including the possibility of expanding our preschool and EDP programs, as they both bring lease income to the district. We will continue to examine other revenue enhancing programs, but none of those will solve our problem for next year. They are all long-term solutions that may bear fruit in the years to come.
So we are faced with a layoff that will impact about one out of every 20 employees. I know there are those who say that they have heard this before, and that we will bring the jobs back. I believe that MBEF will be working to rally our community, and their efforts may bring back some positions. But unfortunately, when we begin school in the fall, even with a spectacular MBEF effort, MBUSD will have fewer employees than we have this year.
As we deal with these reductions, I know we will continue to be a District that serves our students extraordinarily well, as our community has always been a model in how we support our schools, and our employees are devoted to continuous improvement and helping your children learn each and every day. We will continue to do spectacular work for our students, and we will do that work together.
I of course welcome your comments and questions. The Board and I have been receiving a lot of feedback as this budget development has unfolded. If you want to see the full list of my recommendations for reductions, you can see those
here
.
Thank you,
