Message from the Superintendent: Bringing Back Some Budget Reductions

Message from the Superintendent Bringing Back Some Budget Reductions

Dear SRCS Community,

This school year, my first in SRCS, has been full of wonderful and meaningful moments for our students, staff and families. I also want to acknowledge how difficult the budget reduction process has been for our community. Your engagement and feedback throughout has been very valuable and I thank you for sharing your voice. 

After the Board approved the reductions on Feb. 26, we've continued to monitor our revenue projections and how they impact the implementation of our budget reductions. I am relieved to share that projections have moderately improved, largely thanks to increased revenue from a high number of newly-enrolled students; a decrease in our special education contributions for our ESD; and more than projected interest booked from our funds in the County Treasury. Learn more in our Second Interim Budget Report presentation.  

Based off the community feedback shared over the past few months, I am happy to let you know that the Board is supporting steps to scale back the reductions in the following ways: 

• Elementary School District: For the upcoming 2024-25 school year, we will "bring back" the contract with National Academy of Athletics for our TK-5 physical education program. This means that we will not be internalizing the PE curriculum and instruction and we look forward to partnering with NAofA. 

• High School District: For the upcoming 2024-25 school year, we will reduce but not eliminate the stipends for our mental health trainees, and we will use grant funding so it's not an impact to the General Fund. We will also maintain and not reduce the stipends for our mental health associates, fully funding one stipend position at both TLHS' and SRHS' Wellness Centers. Furthermore, HeadsUp has announced they will supplement with funding for an additional three-day-a-week associate at both schools. This means that overall, we are increasing our staffing at our Wellness Centers, and we are very grateful to HeadsUp for their support to make this happen! 

This is all very exciting news! At the same time, I want to caution that the work isn't over, and we must continually collaborate with our community towards better fiscal health in the near and long term. We will continue to monitor the rollout of the State's budget and refine our own, and we now have a better outlook on our own finances with our Second Interim Budget reports complete. Given all this, we do not anticipate being able to roll back other significant reductions at this time.

Thank you all for your support and partnership!

Sincerely,

Carmen Diaz Ghysels
Superintendent 
 

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