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The Board of Education at the San Ramon Valley Unified School District is poised to continue discussions and consider a vote on a proposed $26 million budget balancing plan from the superintendent’s office that was first introduced in December.
The plan comes on the heels of numerous budget cuts to the district over the past year. It was first introduced at the board’s Dec. 19 workshop, with trustees and administrators expressing their regret about the proposed cuts and numerous community members providing public comments about the impacts they would have.
“In the 2023-24 school year, the District made $10 million in reductions. In the 2024-25 school year, the District enacted $3.5 million in reductions,” SRVUSD Superintendent CJ Cammack wrote in a staff report prepared for the upcoming meeting. “In order to ensure a positive budget, the District must enact an additional $24 million in reductions for the upcoming 2025-26 school year. The total of these budget reductions is $37.5 million.”
Although $24 million is the minimum amount required to be slashed from the budget, a point that arose at the Dec. 19 workshop was that there could be variance in the projected versus actual savings proposed in the plan.
“Given the District’s razor thin reserve levels in the current Multi Year Projection, staff recommends setting a target reduction of $26 million to allow for any difference between projected savings versus actual savings,” Cammack wrote.
“Based on current projections, $24 million is still the minimum required reduction for a positive budget,” he continued. “If some of the estimated savings are under realized, SRVUSD reserves are insufficient to cover the difference and SRVUSD will not have a positive budget.”
Cammack added that a $26 million target would potentially allow for some leeway to reinstate positions and programs, should the projected and actual savings turn out to be aligned.
The recommended $26 million in reductions in the 2025-26 school year would impact nearly every facet of the district’s budget, including mental health resources, standardized testing such as the SAT on district campuses, technology, special education, instruction, and administration.
In other business, the board is set to review and consider accepting the independent financial audit for the 2023 to 2024 fiscal year, and to consider accepting initial proposals for labor negotiations from its CSEA and SEIU units.
The SRVUSD board is set to meet at 6 p.m. on Tuesday (Jan. 14). The agenda is available here.
Is it true the district is missing $3.4M and a top district leader is on paid leave-