Het verhaal
Layoffs are on the table at the Palo Alto Unified School District, which must cut $33 million for the next school year. “We’re going to have to fire people,” board member Shounak Dharap said at the Tuesday, August 18 meeting. New superintendent Jason Glass called the cuts the board’s most important work for the next two years. The gap is too large, he said, to close with light bulbs, paper, or copiers; “terrific” programs, services, and staff may go as well. “These conversations are going to make people scared and angry. We have to have them anyways.”
The district wants to avoid layoffs first by leaving vacancies open and reassigning people. At the district office, Glass has already left administrative posts unfilled. A large share of the expected gap comes from new union contracts: a 10.4 percent raise and $10,000 bonuses. Dharap said the board wanted to avoid a strike at the start of the new superintendent’s tenure. Former board member Ken Dauber called the contracts “unaffordable and excessively generous.” “The board has created a financial crisis entirely of its own making.”
Board member Shana Segal wants to look at a second try at renewing the parcel tax, via a special election in the spring. That renewal failed on June 2. Chief business officer Charen Yu said the district has until March 15 for layoff notices, and that another $10 million in cuts is in view for the 2028-29 school year. New property-tax estimates from the Santa Clara County Assessor are due in early September.