Cuts And School Closure On Horizon For HUSD

During the January 28th Hayward Unified School District (HUSD) Board of Trustees meeting, Superintendent Chen Wu-Fernandez presented initial plans to cut over $7,000,000 from the District's budget. The proposal included cutting contracts for services, reducing the supplies and services budget for school sites, closing the Faith Ringgold School of Arts and Science, and staff layoffs. Superintendent Wu-Fernandez said that a positive State budget and potential parcel tax prevented even more cuts from being recommended.

New Year, New Cuts

Faced with consistently declining enrollment, HUSD continues to lose funding and is in its second round of multi-million dollar cuts. Buoyed by COVID-era grants, the money dried up in 2024 and forced the District to cut $54,000,000 last year—though they only cut $38,000,000 and used one-time funding to fill the remaining gaps.

The District needs to both eliminate the deficit and maintain a State-mandated 3% reserve by March 26th. Only $7,000,000 needs to be cut to balance the budget, but an additional $4,000,000-5,000,000 in one-time funding is expiring. On top of all that, Superintendent Wu-Fernandez said that they are expecting an additional $6,000,000-8,000,000 in increased costs.

That's an up to $20,000,000 funding gap that HUSD will need to close to maintain existing staffing and programs. And any plan to do that needs to be approved before the end of February.

Superintendent Wu-Fernandez said that, after several rounds of outreach, the Staff and parents surfaced the following priorities:

1. Academic Support
2. School Safety
3. Mental and Behavioral Health
4. Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) and Athletics

She said that these priorities informed how the District shaped the following cuts:

1. Re-allocate existing grants to maximize use
2. Reduce external contracts for services
3. Reduce Supplies/Services budget for school sites
4. Close Faith Ringgold School of Arts and Science
5. Eliminate vacant positions and layoffs

However, even all these changes didn't fully balance the budget. "We did not find $13-15 million of solutions as we thought we wanted," Superintendent Wu-Fernandez said. But she said favorable budget news from Sacramento in the May Revise and the potential of a Parcel Tax may help. "Those things will actually bring stable funding to the district," she said, "potentially in an ongoing way."

Notably, $4,000,000-5,000,000 in one-time funding wasn't addressed during this meeting and won't be until February 11th. This funding pays for Social Emotional Counselors, Community School Specialists, teachers, Teachers on Special Assignment (TOSAs), and some District positions.

Board Divided On Accountability Directors

One of the remaining positions that caused friction among Trustees was Accountability Directors. According to comments from Superintendent Wu-Fernandez and Trustee April Oquenda, HUSD used to have at least three Accountability Directors tasked with supervising Principals throughout the District and enforcing policy.

When asked by Trustee Ken Rawdon if she was satisfied with the level of accountability, Superintendent Wu-Fernandez admitted, "There hasn't been anyone in it" since she was appointed last year.

But not every Trustee supported the proposal. Trustee Austin Bruckner-Carrillo wondered why the position was being kept. "That's a $200,000/year job," he said. "It pays less than the Principals that role would supervise." Trustee Rawdon said, "If I'm gonna vote yes on that, then I'm gonna need you to convince me."

Superintendent Wu-Fernandez said that the position was essential to support school sites and parents while also ensuring accountability. She said that multiple parents at multiple school sites had complained about accountability at school sites and was the only District Office position that would oversee school sites directly. "I need to maintain the ability to have a person go out and [go to a site]," she said, "and that be their primary responsibility versus someone's side role."

Trustee Bruckner-Carrillo pushed back, however. "I think we just had our first moment where an answer was given from you that I 100% don't agree with," he said. He said that the Accountability Director position was administrative bloat that came at the cost of positions like Custodians, Family Engagement Specialists, and anyone leading District-wide LGBTQ+ work.

Trustee Rawdon was also visibly skeptical of the role, while Trustee Oquenda supported it. It was unclear where Trustees Sara Prada and Peter Bufete stood on the issue.

Specialists For Some, But Not For All

One notable cut was the support for Community Engagement Specialists. While the 18 Community Schools would retain their Family Engagement Specialists, the remaining 11 school sites would have those positions removed. The reason is that the Community Schools receive external funding for those positions, though many would have their hours reduced.

Non-community schools would, according to Superintendent Wu-Fernandez, receive a small increase in their local site funding which they could allocate to the specialists if they choose. "They potentially have some site funds that can help in terms of mitigating some of the concerns and gaps," she said. They would decide how to spend that money during the normal site budget process.

But Trustee Sara Prada said that the change was inequitable. "Asking us to look at our school site means that we have to make a decision between our Reading Intervention Specialist, our Math Specialist. It's incredibly unfair," she said, "to make that type of decision because either way we are going to be taking something away from our students."

Trustee Bruckner-Carrillo pushed for cuts or reallocations within Student/Family Services, presumably because, as one AEOTE pointed out during public comment, despite almost half of the Family Engagement Specialists being cut, the administrative team for that program remained untouched.

At the same time, he urged for Family Engagement Specialists to stay because they are the only staff doing outreach for the District. "We need to be able to compete for students," he said. "We need to be able to market to families and I'm concerned of the cuts here. There is no district-wide strategy for how we do engagement."

Closing Faith Ringgold School Of Arts and Science

Faith Ringgold School of Arts and Science was the only site recommended for closure in the fiscal stability plan. According to comments from the Principal, the school currently serves 165 students—though that is allegedly double the enrollment from a year ago. The school is a magnet school with no set boundaries, which means—much like a Charter School—it relies on outreach to convince families to attend.

When Trustee Prada asked what steps the District had taken to support the site, since it was the second time in two years Staff was recommending its closure. "I'm guessing we didn't take any steps," Trustee Prada said. Superintendent Wu-Fernandez said that, as a magnet school, Faith Ringgold was supposed to have a specialized program to attract families, but that didn't happen. "The program that was supposed to happen at that school site did not happen," she said.

Trustee Bruckner-Carrillo worried that the families at Faith Ringgold may go somewhere else. "I'm concerned those kids are not going to stay in HUSD," he said.

How We Use Our Money Matters

Trustee Bruckner-Carrillo criticized some of the positions to be cut since they could make the District money. He said Family Engagement Specialists help with bringing new families into the District, which makes money. Nurses and Counselors can leverage Medical Billing, which may bring in new revenue. Enrollment and Attendance Staff help bring students into the District and ensure that every student is counted, all of which contributes directly to funding.

Other Trustees focused in on the types of money being spent. Trustee Rawdon asked Staff to help indicate on agendas whether expenses are one-time funding or ongoing funding. He admitted that the Board had made mistakes in spending one-time money for staff in the past. "I can see where we have done that and I am guilty," he said.

But Trustee Oquenda defended the use of one-time COVID relief money on staff. "We were in crisis during COVID," she said. "Our kids needed human support and that is what we gave them. Our Staff needed human support. That is what we gave them."

Trustee Prada said that the support was always needed. "We were in crisis before COVID," she said. "And COVID just made us aware of how we needed to further support our students." When it came to cutting supports, she urged creativity. "I know there has to be other ways."

Public Turns Out Over Cuts

Parents, Students, and Union members spoke for over two hours on several topics. Multiple students and parents expressed support for their Social Emotional Counselors, who are facing elimination under the current plan. Elementary school students, parents, and even the Principal urged the District to reconsider closing Faith Ringgold. And members of both AEOTE and HEA—the Administrative Staff Union and Teacher Union, respectively—argued against cutting administrative staff while keeping highly paid administrative positions.

Mary Walsh, Vice President of HEA, said, "Every thing we do should be focused on the student." She pointed out how social emotional counselors, Independent Study teachers, nurses, and TOSAs all support student success. "[They] enhance the learning experience of every student."

Independent Study Teachers said that their program is already at capacity, despite needing more room for students waiting on expulsion and who may need to do school from the hospital. Multiple teachers said the Independent Study is being used by students who fear Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) action against them or their families.

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