27 Feb Pittsburg Unified Approves $18.89 Million in Budget Reductions

(Screenshot captured by Samantha Kennedy / The CC Pulse)

By Samantha Kennedy

The Pittsburg Unified school board approved $18.89 million in reductions to bring down its multiyear budget deficit, steering clear of large staff layoffs by banking on state funding and changing the district’s pay for certain positions.

Board members on Wednesday unanimously moved forward with reductions that include around $4.7 million in personnel reductions and using an assumed $4.6 million in state funding. PUSD opted to use budget savings from this year’s budget to fill some of the gaps, but placed a freeze on hiring incentives and is expected to reduce the daily pay substitutes receive.

“We have [an] overwhelming amount of cuts that have been done to non-personnel,” said board member Heliodoro Moreno. “But we also have a reality that the vast majority of our general fund is in salaries and staff. So, as we keep moving on, which we will continue to have to do … it’s going to be less and less possible to do those cuts to non-personnel.”

Of the personnel changes, eight positions are expected to be reduced across classified staff and management positions. Over three positions from those groups are being funded differently. The Pittsburg Education Association, which represents teachers, will have three positions reduced through attrition.

Members saved a single IT position at the last meeting, requesting that around $160,000 in reductions be made elsewhere. The approved reductions eliminate PUSD paying for new administrators’ credentials, new administrator coaching and will reduce the pay substitutes receive to keep the position.

The reductions drop the multiyear projected deficit to $6.41 million, but don’t include the recently approved 2.3% raise and disability benefits given to teachers, or what the state’s adopted budget will look like.

Approved at the same meeting, the package with teachers is expected to cost $6.2 million through the 2027-28 year. The board will use its reserves to cover the cost this year, according to the agreement.

PUSD has been able to avoid large staff layoffs — like the potentially hundreds of job cuts in the neighboring Antioch Unified School District — that have come before school boards across the state. Declining enrollment, expiring one-time funding districts received due to COVID-19, increasing special education costs, and staffing shortages are what most districts say are driving their deficits.

Community members at the meeting shared that they understood the need for cuts to keep the district fiscally solvent, but said that PUSD should keep the cuts away from those who are directly working with students.

“I really would like you to consider looking at the contracts … such as PowerSchool, and different things that are paid for are clever,” said Melissa Ortuno, a teacher at Stoneman Elementary School. “There’s tons and tons of money being paid out for things that are not people.”

About $1.38 million in reductions were made to supplies and contracts under the approved reductions. Most of that, approximately $600,000, comes from reductions to crossing guards.

Contracts and consultants attached to them have received criticism from staff and community members in many districts due to costs that they say could instead be used to pay for raises and benefits for district staff.

PUSD has dozens of contracts, according to a district presentation earlier this month. Many of those contracts provide legally required services that are also some of the most expensive.

This year, special education contracts include a $5 million contract with the Contra Costa County Office of Education, $5.3 million for intensive behavioral support, and $5.13 million to non-public schools offering services public schools can’t provide themselves.

But other contracts that are not legally required provide software or operational services to the district.

The board will bring back any of the positions approved in the planned reductions to its March 11 meeting as a resolution.