Fresno Unified employees packed the boardroom on Feb. 25 to oppose the district’s plan to layoff over 250 teachers and staff.
Leqi Zhong
Fresno Unified School District will send out layoff notices to 274 employees, including teachers and staff, to address the ongoing budget deficit.
On Wednesday night, Fresno Unified’s governing board voted unanimously to notify 84 certified employees and 190 classified employees their positions will be terminated at the end of the school year. The district is also going to eliminate 64 vacant positions.
It marks the largest workforce reduction since the pandemic and signals a continued deterioration in the finances of the state’s third-largest school district. With the influx of one-time grants, Fresno Unified’s budget once reached $2.3 billion during the pandemic. Since then, the district has faced a shrinking budget and made cost-cutting measures such as eliminating vacant positions, reassigning personnel to other roles, and implementing early retirement programs.
The district is facing a current deficit of $77 million and a projected $59 million deficit the following year due to the declining enrollment and low attendance, according to the district.
“It is a tough season. It is tough to be in this district, as well as in many other districts in California,” Trustee Claudia Cazares said Wednesday night. “Nothing is going to be easy for any one of us.”
During the 2023-24 school year, Fresno Unified recorded an average daily attendance, or ADA, of 61,879 students. The district projects its average daily attendance, which is used to calculate state funding allocations, will drop below 60,000 by the 2027-28 school year.
The proposed position cuts impact English learner support, student counseling, and campus safety the hardest, according to a district report.
Among the 190 classified positions being eliminated, there are 42 Spanish home and school liaisons, 25 campus safety assistants, and 21 resource counselors.
Of the 84 certified employees facing termination, 22 are counselors, 19 are preschool teachers, and 7 are nurses.
The layoff decision is not final until the governing board approves next fiscal year’s budget in June. The state law requires school districts to notify impacted employees before March 15.
“That motion triggers the layoff bumping and layoff process,” said David Chavez, the district’s chief of human resources. “So statutorily, Education Code requires a district to take action to do preliminary notices by March 15 if there are reduction in hours, reduction in pay that potentially could impact an employee. So tonight, they’re just really launching a process that goes all the way through.”
The actual scale of the layoffs is approximately 200 positions, Chavez said. But the district needs to notify additional employees who may be affected.
“I don’t know why any of us, anybody has to stand up and argue for their relevance and their benefit to our school sites,” said AJ Pipkin, district employee, at the board meeting. “I see the students who blossom and grow because of direct student support. For the district to sit here and grin and say, ‘It’s just part of the process,’ those are real people with bills to pay and hearts broken with the uncertainty, that the first thing that we see coming for when there is a budget deficit is the schools, is the student support.”
Debbie Acosta, chapter president for SEIU 521, which represents the district’s classified employees, called on Fresno Unified to utilize reserve funds to avoid layoffs.
“FUSD can and should avoid balancing its budget off its already lowest-paid workers, who have long held the foundation of the educational structure in Fresno’s schools,” said Acosta. “Now is the time to fix what is broken and tap into reserves to invest in what works. Making the right choices now will protect students and staff during a time it is needed the most.”
Fresno Unified’s current reserve is 5.83%, according to the district. The state requires local school districts to have a minimum reserve level of 2%.
Without implementing cuts, the district’s reserve level will fall below 2% within two years, putting it at risk of state takeover, according to Patrick Jensen, the district’s chief financial officer.
Last December, Fresno Unified board approved early retirement for 573 employees with the goal of generating approximately $56 million in savings over the next five years.
But for the 2026-27 school year, it addresses less than half of the $50 million reduction needed, according to the district.
This story was originally published February 26, 2026 at 10:08 AM.
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Leqi Zhong is the Clovis accountability/enterprise reporter for The Bee. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley with a Master’s degree in journalism. She joined The Bee in 2023 as an education reporter. Leqi grew up in China and is native in Cantonese and Mandarin.