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The Pleasanton Unified School District board of trustees will be voting on two resolutions Thursday night, which will allow the district to move forward with laying off several certificated and classified staff.
Separately, the board will also vote on two resolutions that will help determine the order of layoffs, specifically for certificated employees.
According to the Feb. 13 staff report, the first resolution the board will look to approve will authorize the reduction of “the identified certificated services due to a reduction in particular kinds of services for the 2025-2026 school year.”
“This reduction of particular kinds of services may require the termination of certificated employees at the end of this school year,” according to the staff report.
“(The resolution) identifies the services to be reduced and directs the superintendent or his designee to send appropriate notices to all certificated employees whose employment may be terminated by virtue of reduction of the particular kinds of services identified.”
A total of 13.17 full-time equivalent (FTE) — which represents the number of hours a full-time employee at PUSD works — certificated staff positions will be cut, the staff report states. Of that total, seven management FTE will be reduced while just over six FTE will be reduced from non-management.
According to staff, these reductions are expected to generate about $2,292,000 in savings — however, the actual amount in savings will be determined “upon final staffing allocations for the 2025-2026 school year.”
The resolution also proposes to reclassify a senior director of research and evaluation position to a coordinator position as part of a departmental restructuring.
A separate resolution will be presented to the board that seeks to authorize the reduction of several identified classified services for the next school year.
“Under California Education Code … the district is authorized to reduce classified services for an upcoming school year due to lack of work or lack of funds,” according to the staff report. “In evaluating program needs, existing and projected funding and adjustments in pupil enrollment, staff has determined that the classified services identified … must be reduced at the end of the 2024-2025 school year due to lack of work or lack of funds.”
The total classified staff reduction is 17.65 FTE for non-management and 6 FTE for management.
Upon approval of the resolution, staff will begin notifying those classified employees who will either have their hours reduced or have their positions eliminated at the end of the school year.
Similar to the first resolution, the classified employees resolution also outlines several reclassifications of positions due to departmental reorganization.
These reclassifications and position consolidations will be in fiscal services, technology services and the superintendent’s office.
According to the staff report, the reductions outlined in the second resolution are expected to generate about $3,288,000 in savings.
The board’s open-session meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Thursday (Feb. 13).
In other business:
* In addition to the first two resolutions, the board will also be looking to approve two additional resolutions — one that sets what is known as the skipping criteria for laying off certified employees and another that sets the tie-breaking criteria.
According to staff, “criteria to determine the order of layoff of certificated employees must be established.”
The first additional resolution states the district should veer away from laying off certificated employees with seniority due to “the special training and experience, or competency, they possess which is required to serve the District and its students.”
“Pursuant to California Education Code … the district may deviate from laying off a certificated employee in order of seniority (i.e., ‘skip’) based upon a need for specific personnel who possess special training and experience, or competency, to teach a specific course or course of study or to provide specific services which others with more seniority do not possess,” the staff report states.
The second additional resolution that the board will vote on has to do with determining criteria which will be used for “ordering the seniority of certificated employees with the same first date of paid service.”
Essentially, it is a tie-breaking criteria when it comes to employees with seniority who started working at PUSD roughly at the same time.
“The board’s approval … is necessary to establish the criteria which will be applied in order to resolve ties between certificated employees with the same first date of paid probationary service,” according to the staff report.
* The board will also be voting on renaming the Amador Valley High School Baseball Stadium after Coach Lou Cesario, who after 23 years at the school decided to leave last year in order to lead the program at Northgate High School in Walnut Creek.
“Amador Valley High School Staff propose naming the baseball field in honor of Coach Lou Cesario, whose 23 years of dedication to Amador Valley High School shaped not only a winning tradition for the baseball program, but also the lives of countless student-athletes,” the staff report states. “Naming the field after Coach Cesario would be a lasting tribute to his impact, honoring not only his coaching achievements but also the legacy of leadership and inspiration he leaves behind at Amador Valley High School.”
* Staff will be recommending that the board approve an amendment to a lease-leaseback agreement with Robert A. Bothman Construction for the renovation of the athletic fields at Pleasanton Middle School.
The district had entered into the agreement — which is a contract where a property owner leases a property to a tenant and then leases it back from the tenant — for the renovations with the Santa Clara-based company back in January.
According to the staff report, the amendment establishes a “Guaranteed Maximum Price” for the project at just under $5.3 million dollars and it also outlines the updated project timeline and scope of work. The district is funding this project with its $395 million Measure I general obligation bond, which voters approved in 2022.
The scope of this project includes installing synthetic turf, natural grass and other field enhancements. The amendment also includes adding an alternate to install a cricket pitch.
According to staff, the work is scheduled to begin this month and is anticipated to be completed by September.
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Couldn’t help noticing that the PUSD headcount reductions for the coming 2 years almost perfectly off-sets the outlay for the athletic field project at Pleasanton Middle School. (Though there’s a difference accounting-wise between operating expenses and capital improvements, in the end the money all comes from tax-payers.) Is this the trade-off residents of the district really want?
Wondering whether the PUSD district positions will ALSO be reduced as part of the headcount reduction plan? (‘certificated employees’ implies the reductions will occur in the teaching staff, but perhaps that’s not so?)