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The Pleasanton Unified School District Board of Trustees identified about $7.5 million in budget cuts last week, mostly related to operational services, professional development, and district and school site administrators.
The trustees have been discussing potential budget reduction options for several months, with a list of identified cuts that they’re working to fine-tune. A key part of these discussions involves applying weighting criteria to prioritize each item based on its impact on students. Items with the highest priority, which are least impactful to students, will be included in the final list of reductions.
Parents, students and district employees packed the school board meeting room on Nov. 6 after holding a rally beforehand in opposition to many of the proposed cuts that the board has been debating in recent months, several of which were specialist job positions in the elementary, middle and high schools.
After listening to over two hours of community members’ pleas, as well as taking into consideration the overall impact to students, the school board agreed that for now, it does not need to prioritize cutting from programs like music, science and physical education.
“It was really powerful to see families from all elementary schools coming together, with engaged speakers and kids participating. Our collective presence truly made a difference,” said Marina Vidigal Brandileone, one of the organizers for last week’s rally. “We also look forward to seeing a concrete medium- to long-term revenue plan from the district so that we don’t find ourselves in this situation again,” she told the Weekly.
Last month, the school board held multiple budget workshops and public hearings to discuss the upcoming cuts and reductions. According to the district, the budget reductions are needed to address a projected $8 million to $9 million budget deficit for next year.
PUSD has attributed the structural deficit to several factors including declining enrollment, expiration of one-time state funds, low state funding and rising costs for compensation, insurance, health care and special education services.
In its Sept. 25 resolution committing to fiscal solvency approved by the board, the district noted that it will need to make ongoing budget reductions — and look for potential revenue enhancements — that will net a total savings of over $8.15 million in the 2026-27 fiscal year and just over $737,000 in the 2027-28 fiscal year.
That commitment was made to the Alameda County Office of Education as a condition of the district budget’s approval after PUSD found a $3.5 million variance from last fiscal year’s budget that pushed the district’s reserves below the state’s minimum 3% and has left the district in a position where it has to make millions of dollars worth of cuts to next year’s budget.
ACOE Superintendent Alysse Castro spoke to the board during last week’s meeting, thanking the trustees and staff for their continued work on addressing the district’s budget challenges. However, she also noted that failure to resolve the issue could result in state intervention and a loss of local control.
The in-depth budget discussions kicked off on Oct. 16 with the school board reviewing the ongoing structural deficit, a 2026-27 budget reduction analysis tool and a preliminary list of potential budget reductions that totaled about $13.5 million in cuts.
During its Oct. 23 regular board meeting, the trustees continued the discussion by reviewing the district’s updated reductions list, which totaled about $15 million.
The reduction range came up during the Nov. 6 meeting after Trustee Mary Jo Carreon said that her hope was to not go over $7 million in cuts after hearing many conflicting numbers of the total amount of cuts the district should be aiming to make.
“We have heard different numbers,” Carreon said. “We have heard $8.9, $10.4 and $11.2 (million).”
She said a lot of the cuts that the board might still need to consider making will be difficult
“A lot of these things left over are things that I am having a really difficult time cutting because I value relationships, I value health and safety and mental and counseling,” Carreon said. “I think that we just need to say ‘let’s find $500,000 (more) — I don’t want to get to $8 million because I don’t want to go through all of these because these are all painful cuts.”
However, Superintendent Maurice Ghysels clarified that while the absolute minimum the board needs to cut is $8.9 million — as required by the county’s conditional budget approval — the $11.2 million target is more of a suggestion based on various contingencies.
“I think it’s disingenuous to say that staff is changing the number. What they’re showing you is the impact of the variables in the equation,” Board President Justin Brown said. “Based on the last financials, based on the estimated COLA from the state, based on the numbers of enrollment … that is the number.”
During last week’s meeting, the board also reviewed many of the contentious items that may not have been prioritized to be placed on the final list of potential cuts, but would be next in line if the board finds itself needing to make additional cuts.
Some of those highly debated positions on the chopping block include health service assistants and secretaries across the district.
“Being an administrative secretary at both a middle school and a high school here, we cannot do without our health services assistants,” Trustee Laurie Walker said. “They need to be full-time. I cannot support reducing any of them.”
But much of the discussion last week centered on proposed cuts to the elementary, middle and high school specialists for certain programs.
“If this board truly believes in the value of education, then prove it. Show us that you’re willing to protect it, even when it’s hard,” Beth Thompson, a parent of a Donlon Elementary School student, said during public comment. “Show us that you’re willing to rethink, revise, and respond — not retreat behind uncertainty and dismissal. Because our children deserve better and this community demands better.”
The board moved a number of items, which total $1.56 million in savings, to a second tier of potential reductions which would be tapped if the board needs to still add to its finalized list of reductions.
It identified a little over $3 million in cuts that were placed in a third and final bucket, which includes items that the majority of trustees agree are too important to cut and that would have negative impacts on students, such as the fifth grade Outdoor Education Program.
The board still needs to weigh out and reach consensus on just under 10 items, which it is set to do at its next regular meeting Thursday (Nov. 13).
After finalizing the complete list of prioritized reductions, staff will review those options and prepare for upcoming labor discussions — as some of the proposed cuts involve changing bargained contract language — and further budget reporting next month.
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Maybe it’s finally time to ask: why are we prioritizing massive tax breaks for wealthy longtime homeowners over fully funding our kids’ schools? We’re facing a critical budget shortfall thanks to Proposition 13 that’s forcing us to cut programs for our children, the very people who represent this town’s future that we should be prioritizing. Yet we continue to provide a 90% – 95% property-tax DISCOUNTS based on market value to people who’ve lived here for a long time, many of whom have seen their home values skyrocket FAR beyond anything they imagined when they bought, so they don’t even need the tax break.