“Layoff the excuses, NOT my colleagues.” “Our students deserve MORE, not less.” “351+ layoffs is the unimaginable.”
These were just some of the signs held by community members protesting mass staff cuts at district meetings.
Facing a $187 million dollar deficit, the district was under intense pressure to take action. On Friday, January 31, district board members voted 4-1 to approve sweeping layoffs. This led to the dismissal of 280 employees including teachers, counselors and social workers. However, for many, one pressing question remained: How did the budget crisis spiral so far out of control and why was it not addressed sooner?
The History of the Budget
The Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) financial crisis stems from two main points, declining enrollment and the conclusion of COVID relief funds.
Chief Business Official Ron Hacker, who has been at SAUSD for about a year and three quarters, has been a CBO for more than 12 years, and has been working for schools for 22 years in various parts of school business comments on this situation.
“Just four years ago, we were the largest school district in Orange County, and now we’re the fourth largest, with Capistrano, Irvine, and Garden Grove all bigger than us now,” Hacker said.
Our declining enrollment leads to a budget deficit. Hacker explains that declining enrollment stems from the systemic issue of declining birth rates. In addition, Santa Ana has been experiencing a significant amount of gentrification, making it difficult for families to afford.
“We lose approximately 5% of our students every year, and I mean, that is just a tremendous level of decline. The reason for that is, number one, declining birth rates, and that’s a statewide phenomenon. But within Santa Ana, in addition to that, we also have the economic pressures of living in Santa Ana. Right now, a lot of our families, with the gentrification and all of the development and everything, it is very difficult for many families to afford to live in Santa Ana,” Hacker said.
The second root issue is the COVID relief grant funding. When there were economic indicators of a recession, both federal and state governments took action. They input hundreds of millions of dollars into K-12 schools, individuals and into municipalities, creating an artificial stop.
“So for Santa Ana in particular, the federal and state government infused about $400 million into our budget. The guidance from both the federal and the state government was to try and create support for students and sustain those supports for as long as possible so that students, upon returning to in-person education, would be provided with whatever they needed to get past that learning loss that happened with remote education,” Hacker said.
SAUSD decided to expand all of these supports and hire hundreds of additional teachers, counselors and mental health professionals. This was the SAUSD board’s decision. They kept these staff members until recently, where it was found that it was no longer sustainable. This then led to the voting of the layoff of 280 employees. Hacker expands on this.
“I mean there could have been cuts in earlier years, but what our board was committed to and what they expressed; they said during the board meeting that they wanted to keep the support in place for as long as possible. The exact quote was, we want class sizes as small as possible for as long as possible. We want counseling ratios to be as small as possible for as long as possible. So, you know, that was the will of the board,” Hacker said.
However, this is not the only initiative they are taking to try to calm the budget crisis. Hacker demonstrates other reductions.
“The layoffs, which is a reduction of force of approximately 280 teachers and counselors, account for less than one quarter of what we are doing to try and erase the budget deficit. So three quarters of what we are doing to erase that deficit is away from the layoffs, and that is revenue enhancement,” Hacker said.
They have also implemented an early retirement project, Supplemental Early Retirement Program (SERP). Hacker speaks on the benefits of retiring early.
“We also have the supplemental early retirement program where 160 teachers and counselors opted to take retirement. So that’s not a layoff, they’re retiring, and then we provided an incentive, 80% of their salary, in order to incentivize them to retire in order to minimize the layoffs…depending on what the credential is of the person who’s taking that, it could be potentially for every person that additional person that signs up for the SERP, one less person will have to be laid off,” Hacker said.
How This Affects Students
The executive director of finance and operations Jennifer Cisneros, comments on how this will affect student life and extracurriculars.
“So there was another pot of funding that was released to school districts, and the benefit of this funding is there is no expiration date right now, it’s ongoing funding,” Cisneros said.
The extracurricular activities are funded and supported by a different fund and instead they are going to try to leverage it to continue to support the students wherever needed. It will help to let students continue to receive help before and after school.
Counselors, mental health services and class sizes have been a big concern from the community. Ashley Atilano, both a teacher and alumni from Godinez Fundamental, comments on this.
“The services have been much better, or even just like as a student, like most of my class sizes were over 40 students in every period. And right now, all of my class sizes are under 30. I even have some classes that are as small as 14,” Atilano said.
Hacker adds that class sizes and counselor ratios will continue to be lower than the state average.
“Just at the elementary school, we’re talking about one or two more students per class. That’s it. Okay. And in high school. It’s about the same…The counseling ratios will be district wide, about one to 350, which is lower than state average, lower than federal average, and it’s comparable to what we’re seeing in our neighboring school districts,” Hacker said.
As SAUSD finalizes a budget stabilization plan, the community continues to demand transparency and accountability. Atilano speaks on this.
“However, I think since they had the foresight that that money wasn’t going to last forever, they should have just been transparent that those jobs are not going to last forever and gradually, you know, either lay off people or just make it clear when they took the job,” Atilano said.
The crisis highlights a crucial lesson in financial management. The future of Santa Ana’s schools depends not just on surviving this crisis but on learning from it to build a stronger and more resilient educational system.
“We’re actually still going to be providing some pretty significant services to students. And, you know, we will continue to listen and we’ll continue to act with as much compassion as possible. But we do have a responsibility to all of the future students of Santa Ana Unified,” Hacker said.
