Palo Alto Unified School District is preparing about $33 million in budget cuts for the 2027-28 school year, and an outside review of the projections behind that number is expected to wrap up by the end of October, The Stanford Daily reported.
How it got here: In June, voters rejected Measure B, a parcel tax that would have raised about $14 million a year. It was the first time in 22 years that a district parcel tax failed. Two weeks later, the board approved raises of 10.4% for teachers and 10.2% for other staff. Salaries and benefits are now about $35 million higher than in the budget adopted in June.
Palo Alto Online reported the board must make $43 million in reductions over the next two years.
The priorities
At its Oct. 13 meeting the board backed three guiding values drawn from a survey of 455 community members, 206 staff and 44 school leaders: keep cuts away from the classroom, protect students with the greatest needs, and preserve the breadth of programs. "On close calls, we save jobs using attrition, vacancies, retirements before layoffs," Chief Business Officer Charen Yu said.
"We can't find $33 million worth of cuts without touching the classroom in some way," board Vice President Rowena Chiu told The Daily.
What's next
Sacramento-based School Services of California began its review Oct. 1 and will present findings to the board by Dec. 15. The board is considering another parcel tax for March. Layoff notices are due by March 15, and two new board members chosen Nov. 3 will help make the final decisions.