MBUSD last considered nearly 40 layoffs in 2024 to prepare for anticipated future funding reductions<\/a>.<\/p>\nA multiyear projection shows that without reductions, Deputy Superintendent Dawnalyn Murakawa-Leopard said at this week\u2019s board meeting, there will be an ongoing deficit that grows year after year as expenses rise. As of now, the district wouldn\u2019t have enough money to cover economic uncertainties or anything else without cuts, she said.<\/p>\n
Without reductions to the budget, the district anticipates being more than $6 million in debt by the 2027-28 school year. With the reductions, it projects having a more than $8 million surplus by that time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to do something to change this picture,\u201d she said. \u201cWith reductions, we show a surplus rather than a deficit. That brings us in line to show a positive budget.\u201d<\/p>\n
Three-fourths of the budget is spent on employee salary and benefits, Murakawa-Leopard said, including pensions, workers compensation and social security. Costs of employee health benefits have also been on a steep increasing trend, she said.<\/p>\n
Morale, however, also drops among teachers who are pink slipped, said Kofahl, a social studies teacher at Mira Costa High School.<\/p>\n
\u201cTeachers are coming to work every day,\u201d he said, \u201cbut it\u2019s hard to feel that push to give 110% when you feel the district doesn\u2019t value you.\u201d<\/p>\n
MBUSD teachers want to see the district make better decisions, Kofahl said, and not look to employees as the first piece of fat to cut from the budget.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur big question right now is, \u2018Where is the money going?\u2019\u201d Kofahl said. \u201c(Layoffs are) collateral damage of poor decision making at the district level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kofahl also said he has colleagues who have gotten pink slipped six times while they\u2019ve worked at MBUSD.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been doing this dance a long time,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The students, he said, are the ones who will ultimately be the most impacted. Class sizes have increased over the years, from the high 20s when Kofahl arrived at the district in 2014, to now up to 37 children in a typical class.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are looking at how they could possibly fit any more desks in their classrooms,\u201d Kofahl said.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s likely to jump to at least 40 next school year, if more teachers are cut, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt hurts our ability to deliver the best possible service to our students,\u201d Kofahl said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to get to know a student in a room of 36 other kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s very difficult to get to know a student, give them individualized instruction and leave meaningful feedback on classwork, Kofahl said. Teachers are having to work longer hours at home late at night to deliver the same level of instruction.<\/p>\n
The teachers\u2019 association, Kofahl said, is trying to convince district officials that reductions in force are not a viable solution to budgetary issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we actually care about the quality of educational services in this district, there needs to be another way to address this,\u201d Kofahl said. \u201cOur district\u2019s apporach has always been layoffs as a temporary fix, and we need to figure out a better way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Teachers\u2019 association members plan to attend the March 25 board meeting to speak about the consequence of the layoffs, Kofahl said.<\/p>\n
Since the first budget report of the 2025-26 year, the district has made $1.05 million in revenue and has $665,000 in expenses.<\/p>\n
Even with a bit left over for the current year, continuing to spend without cutting any costs will keep digging the district into a hole, Murakawa-Leopard said at this week\u2019s board meeting. Expenses, she added, often grow at faster pace than revenues.<\/p>\n
MBUSD, Murakawa-Leopard said, is among the lowest-funded districts in California.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe get thousands (of dollars) less per student than other districts in the county or state,\u201d Murakawa-Leopard said.<\/p>\n
All school districts across California receive the same amount of money in base education grants, but \u201chigh needs\u201d districts get larger supplemental grants.<\/p>\n
MBUSD is not one of those, so it relies on local funding on top of state education funds to maintain programming.<\/p>\n
MBUSD has faced an ongoing deficit for the past eight years. In the 2024-25 school year, for example, revenue grew by $20 million, while fixed costs grew by $23 million.<\/p>\n
Over time, the amount of positions paid for by Measure MB<\/a> funds has steadily declined from 27 in the 2018-19 school year, according to the budget report, down to an anticipated 17 for the rest of the 2025-26 school year. Measure MB is a 2024 parcel tax extension that collects $2.5 million annually to maintain programs and small class sizes for six years.<\/p>\nFinancial decline has also affected MBUSD\u2019s credit rating, a score used to determine districts\u2019 ability to pay back bonds. MBUSD\u2019s rating has dropped to AA- from a previous AAA, Murakawa-Leopard said, because of the impact on reserve fund levels.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen reserve levels fall and we have ongoing deficit spending,\u201d she said, bond issuers are \u201cconcerned about our financial health.\u201d<\/p>\n
New bonds may need to be issued as soon as next year, she added, so the district has to get busy ramping that back up as well.<\/p>\n
MBUSD may be able to hold back on cuts if the state equalizes special education funding, Murakawa-Leopard said, and if the state\u2019s proposed $2.8 billion Student Support and Professional Development Discretionary Block Grant passes.<\/p>\n
The board has until June 17 to adopt its final budget, while the state has until June 30. MBUSD will have 44 days after the state budget approval to make any changes to its own budget \u2014 reflecting the uncertainty around upcoming state funding.<\/p>\n
The board is also looking at reducing the contribution to its reserve fund from 5% to 3%. Board member Jen Fenton, however, said that the board needs to find ways to increase reserves rather than reduce them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some Manhattan Beach Unified School District employees could soon lose their jobs so the district can free up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[9965,7739,2136,267,9966,75,9967,84,83,9,24,63,32476],"class_list":["post-162868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-beach-cities","tag-budget","tag-california","tag-local-news","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-beach","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-tbr-manhattan-beach"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}