Grossmont Union High School District plans to issue notices of layoffs for over 60 positions.
To jeers from angry community members, the board approved the cuts Thursday by votes of 4-1 at a specially-called meeting dominated by members of the public who opposed them.
Acting Superintendent Sandra Huezo sent out an email to the district staff dated Tuesday that the cuts need to come due to projected budget challenges, including declining enrollment.
“It is true that we have reserves, built through years of prudent financial planning by the Board and District leadership,” she wrote. “However, relying on them alone to cover ongoing personnel costs is not sustainable. Reserves are one-time resources intended for one-time challenges — this is not that.”
But on Thursday, the vast majority of those in attendance in the overflowing room voiced their opposition to those cuts, arguing the district’s finances didn’t justify the cuts and could cover the expenses.
“This budget argument just doesn’t hold up in this increasing dystopian district; two plus two still does not equal five,” said Jason Balistreri, a teacher librarian at Mount Miguel High School. “Enrollment is not a crisis. We’ve heard this. It’s only gone down slightly in nine years.”
The district’s enrollment in 2024 was 16,566, according to the California School Dashboard. It was 17,035 in 2017, the furthest back its data goes.
Much of the attention at the meeting was focused on the elimination of nine teacher librarians. District spokesperson Collin McGlashen said after the meeting that one districtwide librarian would remain.
Near the beginning of the meeting, the board went into recess after the public yelled out against the proposed action. Chris Fite, the Area 2 trustee, remained and cast the lone vote against the cuts.
After the public speaking portion, which was doubled to 40 minutes and had speakers opposed to at least some of the cuts done by the board Thursday night or earlier, the board went into recess again after the public continued to speak against the board.
Peter Mergens, who said he was the fifth tenured teacher in the district, was the first member of the public to keep speaking after the end of the comment period. He pushed back against one board member’s description of himself as pro-education.
“I’ll tell you right now, you cut the libraries, you cut the counseling staff, you cut everything that all of you brave people spoke about — forget it,” he said.
He urged the crowd to vote them out.
When the recess ended, the public kept speaking, only stopping when Fite spoke in opposition to the proposed cuts. “We’re not going to be bringing back people from online charters and stuff if we don’t have certificated librarians and teachers and counselors,” he said.
With “back-of-the-envelope math,” Fite said, the district has a $2.5 million budget deficit projected for this year and next, along with between $30 million and $45 million in reserves — so it could have between 12 and 18 years of deficit spending.
He also said he has been a teacher for 25 years, and there is “chronic underrepresentation of everyone.” Fite said there is a 36-to-1 student-teacher ratio, and they need more staff. “We need to retain these people, and we need to build up these districts,” he said.
McGlashen told reporters after the meeting that it’s not advisable to use reserve money for “long-term structural costs.”
An agenda item to eliminate the 49.2 certificated positions passed 4-1. Those positions included nine library media specialists, four psychologists and 10 assistant principals and vice principals.
After the first vote, which prompted shouts of “shame” and “boo,” the board retreated into a back room.
In a back room with media but no other members of the public present, Board President Gary Woods defended the district’s action and noted that school boards throughout the states have been impacted by wildfires and other financial problems.
“So we are not doing anything unique,” he said.
The board also passed the second item, to eliminate more than 12 classified positions, by a vote of 4-1 in the back room.
Under California law, employees must be notified of potential layoffs by March 15. Any elimination of positions is not final until May 15.
