Local school districts face deficits because of personnel and program reductions.

Parents and students have been voicing their concerns about proposed budgets for local school districts, including Pacific Grove Unified – one of the most affluent districts in Monterey County – and Pajaro Valley Unified, a mostly Latino district that serves northern Monterey and southern Santa Cruz counties.

PGUSD’s projected deficit for this school year is more than $2.9 million. To reduce it, the district proposed cuts across the board on Feb. 6, including eliminating five full-time elementary teachers, including one Spanish instructor, and one mental health therapist.

PGUSD Superintendent Linda Adamson says the recommendation to eliminate teacher positions is driven by lower enrollment. (After community feedback, the district is reconsidering keeping the Spanish teacher and therapist positions.) “We’ll be very clear in our community that we want to maintain small class sizes,” Adamson says. (She defines small as up to 25 students.)

Lauralea Gaona, president of Pacific Grove Teachers Association, says they are carefully working to ensure minimal impact. “We’re working together to look at where we can make cuts that will have the least amount of effect on not only our students, but our staff,” Gaona says.

At PVUSD, a Feb. 12 proposal included the reduction of 100 employees district-wide, also based on declining enrollment – the district is projected to lose 600 students in the upcoming school year. The proposal triggered a protest and an influx of people who spoke up at a board meeting.

PVUSD has run on a deficit for the past three years. In January, the board decided to reduce spending by $5 million. How to cut that spending is another story. The board rejected the Feb. 12 proposal. “We recognize the concerns shared by our community,” PVUSD Superintendent Heather Contreras said in a statement.

Other districts, like Monterey Peninsula Unified School District, are facing similar challenges but are taking a slightly different approach. For the upcoming school year, MPUSD will freeze positions. “This will save approximately $1 million and we will not lay off anyone,” Superintendent PK Diffenbaugh says by email.

Declining enrollment and one-time federal funding that has dried up are factors affecting many districts.

The lower enrollment trend is forecast to continue in Monterey County. The Public projected an 11-percent decline from 2018 to 2028, worse than the 7-percent state average.

However, this impacts school districts differently. Carmel Unified School District and PGUSD get 100 percent of their funding via property taxes; other districts, like MPUSD and PVUSD, depend on the state’s supplementary funding, which is linked to enrollment and daily attendance.

School boards have a March 15 deadline to issue layoff notices for the 2025-26 school year. On Tuesday, Feb. 25 both PGUSD and PVUSD held community forums to listen to concerns and discuss budget-cut alternatives.