This year the layoffs have taken a dramatic turn as district leaders increasingly target classified and central office staff to balance budgets.<\/p>\n School districts have lost both average daily attendance funding, due to declining enrollment, and federal COVID dollars. At the same time, districts are paying more for pensions, health care, supplies and special education.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou have some large school districts and even some mid-sized and smaller school districts that are in complete financial crisis right now, and on the verge of insolvency or going into receivership,\u201d said Troy Flint, chief information officer for the California School Boards Association. \u201cWhen the deficit is so great you almost have to make hatchet-type cuts.\u201d<\/p>\n District offices in the crosshairs<\/p>\n District staff are being targeted by some districts. In Sacramento City Unified, everyone working in the district office, including the interim superintendent, was issued a pink slip.\u00a0Los Angeles Unified<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Oakland Unified<\/a> are also planning to make major cuts to their central offices.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe board directive, ever since we declared the deficit, has been pretty clear: Whatever cuts we have to make, keep them as far away from the classroom as possible,\u201d said Brian Heap, Sacramento City Unified\u2019s chief communications officer.\u00a0<\/p>\n District officials can\u2019t say how many employees at the Serna Center \u2014 Sacramento City Unified\u2019s headquarters \u2014\u00a0will ultimately lose their jobs until they complete a plan to restructure the office, Heap said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to have somebody running payroll. We have to have somebody in the business office. We have to have somebody in our academic office,\u201d Heap said. \u201cBut what does that look like? That\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to figure out.\u201d<\/p>\n Sacramento City Unified officials have announced they will send layoff notices to 800 employees, most who are classified employees, to help reduce a $134 million budget deficit.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to have somebody running payroll. We have to have somebody in the business office. We have to have somebody in our academic office. But what does that look like? That\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to figure out.\u201d<\/p>\n Brian Heap, Sacramento City Unified School District chief communications officer<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m certainly nervous,\u201d said Heap, who also received a pink slip. \u201cI mean, I\u2019d be lying if I said I wasn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n The Los Angeles Unified\u00a0school board\u00a0<\/a>voted<\/a> in February to issue 3,200 layoff notices, including 657 to central office staff and other centrally funded classified positions. The layoffs, expected to actually result in 650 lost jobs, are estimated to save the district about $250 million. The district is facing an $877 million deficit next school year and $443 million the following school year, according to board materials.<\/p>\n Oakland Unified could\u00a0cut up to two-thirds<\/a>\u00a0of its central office staff along with counselors, case managers, attendance clerks, community school managers and other support staff to make up $21 million of\u00a0an estimated $103 million deficit, according to media reports. The\u00a0district planned\u00a0<\/a>to issue a total of 421 preliminary layoff notices and reduce the hours of 144 employees, according to Oaklandside.<\/p>\n Nonteaching jobs often cut first<\/p>\n Classified staff are often targeted for layoffs for practical and political reasons, Flint said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey (districts) try to concentrate layoffs among classified staff and administrative personnel simply because teachers have the most direct impact on student experience and academic achievement, and because teachers \u2014 as the school employees who are most well known to parents and the community \u2014 generally are the most sympathetic profession in the education field,\u201d Flint said.<\/p>\n The California School Employees Association, which represents about 240,000 of the state\u2019s K-12 classified school support staff, reported that at least 2,700 pink slips had been issued to its members by the state\u2019s March 15 deadline. An additional\u00a0519 members received notices that their hours would be reduced and another 254, with jobs funded by federal dollars, were given 60-day layoff notices, according to a union report issued on March 6.\u00a0<\/p>\n Districts should make sure they have cut every possible expense before they start removing staff from school campuses, said CSEA President Adam Weinberger, who works in the Perris Union High School District in Riverside County.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen classified employees are laid off, students lose more than services; they lose trusted adults in their lives \u2014 bus drivers, educators, custodians and office staff who build relationships with our students. And those connections are essential to a safe and supported learning environment,\u201d Weinberger said.<\/p>\n California school boards also approved layoff notices for administrative staff and workers represented by other unions, including members of the Service Employees International Union, which represents about 50,000 classified school employees in California districts including Sacramento City Unified. SEIU officials could not be reached to provide information about the number of members who received layoff notices.<\/p>\n Teachers did not get off unscathed<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774179434_661_LNM-20240812-EDSOURCELOGO-01.jpg\")
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