WCCUSD taking action to address projected $7 million deficit

To remain within its projected spending limits, the West Contra Costa Unified School District must shave $7 million from its 2025-2026 budget. The only question is, how. 

The district’s fiscal staff offered a new approach called purpose-based budgeting at the Budget Committee meeting on Sept. 24th. The framework forces the district to match its spending to its goals.

Purpose-based budgeting will be implemented in the creation of the next budget. If the district is unable to make the projected cuts, that budget will have a deficit of almost $15 million. 

“I’m glad we’re doing this,” said school board member Demetrio Gonzalez-Hoy, who chairs the Budget Committee. “Because I think that we’re going to study the details of what is necessary versus what we want.” 

The new process comes at a turbulent time for the district. On Monday, Superintendent Kenneth “Chris” Hurst announced he will retire in December, forcing the board to find a mid-year interim to fill the position.  

Hurst’s news came three months after the school board failed to pass a budget by the end of June, which is required by law. In August, the board passed a $509 million budget, which it dipped into reserves to cover. The district’s chronic budget problems prompted the Contra Costa County Education Office to assign a consultant last year to help with its finances. 

What is purpose-based budgeting?

Purpose-based budgeting, unlike previous years’ processes, mathematically evaluates how each dollar spent aligns with the district’s mission and goals, which include providing quality education, mitigating institutional racism and supporting low-income students, according to the district’s strategic plan. 

The first step is to separate spending items into three categories: services schools are legally required to provide, what schools should offer to meet district policy, and any additional expenses not required, such as field trips or new computers. 

Spending is then numerically weighted by categories that reflect the district’s goals.

By ranking costs, the district can make more informed decisions about where to decrease spending with minimal impact on the quality of education.

“We don’t want to cut any programs because we need all of our programs,” said Kim Moses, associate superintendent of business services. “But what we’d like to do is do an examination of those programs to identify where they’re extremely effective and where we may have areas of improvement or even areas of reduction.”

Why are cuts needed?

There are two primary causes of the district’s deficit. The first is the loss of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief fund, federal money to support schools’ recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. As of 2023, WCCUSD had received over $53 million from the program. Those funds expired at the end of September, Moses said. 

The second factor is declining student enrollment and attendance rates. In California, those metrics partially determine the state funding a district receives. Over the past six years, enrollment in West Contra Costa schools has declined by 425 students annually. Fewer students means less state revenue, which comprises most of the district’s funding. 

While some of the declining enrollment reflects statewide demographic changes, Gonzalez-Hoy thinks the district could have mitigated the drop in students.

“I think that we should have been a little bit more responsive when we returned from Covid, about looking for those students who were not in seats,” he said.

Until the budgeting process is complete this spring, it remains unclear what will be cut. 

“Our schools are starving,” Gonzalez-Hoy said. “It’s not fair.”

Though no classroom teachers were laid off, last year’s cuts included positions, which the district is hoping to avoid in the next budget.

For teachers, avoiding layoffs is essential. 

“We don’t have the necessary personnel or the staffing to make those type of cuts without having our schools potentially fall apart,” said Francisco Ortiz, president of United Teachers of Richmond.  

The Budget Committee is trying to make those cuts with as little impact as possible, Gonzalez-Hoy said. But there will be pain. 

“​​No matter what, it is going to affect our system,” he said.

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