After a bruising round of cuts this year, the Long Beach Unified School District said it anticipates even more next year to balance its budget and keep the required minimum balance in its reserves.
On top of the $47 million in cuts the district has already made, administrators warned at Wednesday’s school board meeting that $40 million will need to be trimmed next year. They presented a sobering chart of future deficit spending, expected to grow and tempered only somewhat by the district’s fiscal stabilization plan.
“We’re already hearing from our communities the impacts of these cuts, and this is perceivably just the beginning of these difficult decisions,” said school board member Juan Benitez.
The district has pointed to increasing costs, declining enrollment and insufficient state and federal funding that have saddled the district with a deficit of about $70 million, which is expected to balloon in subsequent years. “Any which way you look at this budget,” he said, “it’s a bad scenario.”
Already, mental health support, library staff, parent-support workers, nurses and hundreds of teachers will lose their jobs at the end of this year. It’s unlikely more staff will be cut before next year, as a key deadline has passed for the district to announce further reductions. And although the school board has placed a premium on avoiding teacher layoffs, hundreds of the temporary contracts canceled in February belong to teachers.
“You’re going to have kids coming back to school, and their favorite teachers aren’t there anymore,” one teacher said. “They’re going to show up, and parts of their community are gone.”
She and other teachers who spoke with the Long Beach Post requested they not be named because they are awaiting confirmation about whether or not they could be rehired or feared harming their job prospects. (The district has said some of these teachers may be called back, including hundreds of early childhood educators who are paid with federal funding.)
But many K-12 teachers expect they are out of jobs, even if they have decades of experience and accolades outside LBUSD. One, a middle school teacher, taught for years in another district and received multiple awards for her impact. Some of her former students told her they pursued medicine and PhDs because of how she had inspired and encouraged them.
Despite the safety of her previous position, she made the switch to Long Beach Unified, which hired her on a temporary contract that must be renewed annually. “I am a firm believer: I want to work in the community that I live in,” she said, though she called the move “terrifying.”
Now, expecting her job with LBUSD to end, she said, “It makes me wonder: Should I have ever left my previous site or district to support my community?”
Finding new jobs may prove tough for those leaving Long Beach Unified. Districts across the state are experiencing many of the same budget challenges, laying off thousands — though largely cutting nonteaching jobs first, according to EdSource.
One LBUSD teacher librarian, who has spent more than a quarter century working in education and who was told she won’t have a job next year, said she visits close to a dozen websites daily, applying for other jobs. The uncertainty is straining her family, she said, and even making it more difficult to do her job.
“I’m still 100% in it for the students,” she said, but “in the background, I’m disappointed and I’m sad and I’m angry.” This might be the reason she leaves public education, she said.
Teachers who spoke with the Post expressed frustration with the district’s approach to hiring teachers repeatedly on temporary contracts, which they said gives teachers fewer protections — such as accruing seniority — and allows for their jobs to be cut without the district calling it a layoff.
The district has said that each year, they hire teachers and other certificated staff on temporary contracts to meet time-limited needs, such as “filling in for employees on leave, supporting programs tied to enrollment or funding” and “addressing short-term staffing needs,” according to the district’s March budget update.
One in eight of the district’s more than 4,000 certificated employees are on temporary contracts, and all of them were told they may not be coming back next year.
Staring down more cuts next year, Benitez said the board would work to preserve positions with the highest student impact, especially for the district’s most underserved students, but he said plainly, “We’re going to keep making cuts.”
Without further action, district administrators warned of what would be coming down the pike: a projected $122 million deficit in the 2028-29 school year, when reserves are projected to be fully depleted and annual shortfalls are expected to exceed $100 million. “It’s a downward spiral,” board member Doug Otto said.