Fresno Unified to balance the budget with classroom, other staff cuts

Top Takeaways

The proposed state budget is not likely to change the district’s financial situation. 

The district is cutting counselors, attendance specialists and other school staff just as students and educators say those supports are needed most.

The district finalized its preliminary layoff notices this week ahead of the state’s budget proposal coming out.

Facing a growing budget deficit, Fresno Unified School District, California’s third-largest, finalized hundreds of layoff notices this week, eliminating positions tied to mental health, foster youth services and chronic absenteeism interventions.  

Much like other California school districts, Fresno Unified is navigating a painful phase of post-pandemic budget cuts that are now affecting student-facing services many families, students and educators say are essential. 

Fresno Unified issued more than 260 layoff notices in February and March as it worked to close a projected $59 million budget deficit. There are additional job cuts eliminating vacant positions and cutting posts held by employees set to retire. Since then, the district has identified an even larger deficit because of special education and transportation costs that will likely carry into next year’s shortfall. 

The 70,000-student district is entering its third consecutive school year of the cuts. In previous years, Fresno Unified avoided reductions that touched the classroom. This upcoming school year, however, many of the cuts target positions that students rely on for academic, mental health and attendance support.

Across the district, 229 layoffs were finalized, including preschool teachers, counselors, psychologists, campus safety staff and intervention specialists. Mental health and student support services account for a significant share of the reductions behind nonteaching positions overall.

“Every single decision we make is a hard decision,” Superintendent Misty Her said last month. “We have to balance our budget.”   

Fresno Unified officials say the district can no longer sustain the current staffing levels because of declining enrollment, rising operational costs and the expiration of one-time federal pandemic relief funds.  

The district continues to maintain reserves well above the 2% state-required minimum, with $93.2 million set aside this year and a projected $61 million next year, according to its fiscal report. 

School districts across California have typically turned to layoffs to close large budget deficits. In compliance with state law, school districts are required to send preliminary pink slips by March 15 to employees who could lose their jobs. Many of the notices are later rescinded before May 15, the last day final layoff notices can be given. This year, at least 5,000 school employees statewide received preliminary layoff notices. 

Fresno Unified has followed that statewide pattern. But unlike in many districts, most of the layoff notices were upheld Monday during a special board meeting. Staff with seniority will be able to move into similar, open roles or positions held by colleagues with less seniority. The decision came amid continued criticism of an increasing budget deficit, cuts to student support services, the district’s sizable reserves and the board’s recent vote to double their monthly stipend despite the budget deficit. 

With the layoffs finalized, now the conversation may shift to how services will remain intact and if state money may lower the deficit, offsetting the impact of the far-reaching cuts. 

Manuel Bonilla, president of the Fresno Teachers Association, which represents over 4,500 educators, said in February that the conversation should be about educators and their work with students. 

“As rhetoric comes out about right-sizing,” Bonilla said, “I hope that when you take a look at the 2008-09 budget … you’ll see that although enrollment has declined by 11%, management positions have increased by 82%, revenue has more than doubled, per-pupil spending has surged.”

Why this year is different

For the 2024-25 school year, Fresno Unified focused its budget reductions at the district level. To cut $49 million this year, the district said it scaled back consultant contracts, eliminated vacant positions and moved teachers on special assignment back into classrooms. 

The district also cut programs, including the nearly $30 million Designated Schools initiative, which provided additional instruction to students but reportedly produced inconsistent results. The district and union reached an agreement on how to maintain student support through other programs and minimize negative impacts on staff.  

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The school board in December approved early retirement for 573 employees, a move projected to save the district $56 million over the next five years. Some of those positions will not be replaced.  

But the cuts in the 2026-27 school year, saving $39 million, are expected to have a more direct impact on students and campuses.  

The reductions come even as Fresno Unified has expanded mental health staffing in recent years.

Following the pandemic, Fresno Unified invested heavily in school psychology, counseling and intervention positions to better identify struggling students and connect families with support, said Abigail Arii, the director of student support services for the district’s prevention and intervention department, where many employees in the affected positions work. 

The district became accustomed to large support teams, especially at its middle and high schools, Arii said. Amid cuts, the district has lowered staffing expectations across schools. Middle schools, for example, will now have one counselor, instead of at least two; high schools will have up to 10, down from 11. 

Based on approved cuts, Fresno Unified will eliminate 22 counselor positions, three psychologists, 14 child and welfare attendance specialists and 49 liaisons working with families. 

Students and educators say counselors help students attend school regularly and access resources.  

Counselors also help students meet college admission requirements, support them with applications and financial aid and expose them to post-secondary education and career options. 

Ten counselor positions focused on college and career readiness were preserved with $4.8 million from a district-teacher agreement, allowing that work to continue.  

But other counseling positions funded through one-time pandemic relief funds will end. 

Cuts to Project ACCESS counselors will affect foster youth and students experiencing homelessness. One family told EdSource that Project ACCESS counselors and staff provided a student with a prom dress and ticket, paid for Grad Night at Disneyland, and purchased her cap and gown and graduation invitations. Another student in the same family participates in leadership opportunities and field trips. 

“(They) gave me the opportunity to see my full potential instead of seeing myself as a foster youth with no potential at all,” said student Miriam Rosales at an April 22 board meeting.

Teachers, counselors, psychologists and attendance specialists have developed plans to support chronically absent students, students who missed 10% or more days in one school year, according to Cecilia Aguayo, the district’s child welfare and attendance specialist in 2024 when the district decreased its chronic absence rates and reengaged those students. The attendance specialists have used calls, home visits, student-parent meetings and counseling to get students back into class. 

Aguayo, at a March 11 meeting, said the attendance specialists are the only staff addressing the enrollment and attendance challenges that the district faces.

“Our team plays a critical role supporting Fresno Unified by locating and re-engaging students who are not enrolled at the start of the school year, supporting students and families by identifying and addressing barriers that contribute to chronic absenteeism,” she said. “The work we do directly addresses the very issues cited for the budget cuts.” 

With cuts decided, what now? 

During an April 22 board meeting, Superintendent Her assured trustees that, despite fewer positions and fewer hours, staff would still be providing support services to students. 

She said the district will eliminate some positions but redistribute responsibilities so services remain. 

But spreading the work across fewer employees could lead to staff burnout, inadvertently affecting student services.

While the district’s goal will be to ensure a reasonable workload, Arii, the student support director, acknowledged that the restructured system will not look the same.  

“Those services may not be allocated to where they were,” Arii said. “That does impact, obviously, the number of students that can be served. And does that cause a shift in other places? Yes. There’s a need for sitting down and discussing how we’re going to coordinate.” 

The district has not yet finalized how exactly it will do that, she said.

Other cuts, which support student learning and keep Fresno schools running, include: three intervention specialists, seven nurses, 10 paraprofessional roles and 12 library technicians. 

Meanwhile, across California, education officials have called on Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state Legislature to scrap a plan to withhold billions in education funding that means more cuts at the district level, KQED reported. In January, Newsom proposed holding back $5.6 billion from constitutionally guaranteed Proposition 98 school funding. 

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Fresno Unified union and district leaders have joined protests and campaigns urging the governor to include the funds in the budget. Newsom’s revised proposal will be released Thursday. 

Patrick Jensen, the district’s chief financial officer, spoke with the governor’s staff last week but still lacks clarity on what the state’s budget may mean for Fresno Unified. 

“(A balanced budget for the next two years, according to the governor’s office) could be some more ongoing funding,” Jensen said. “That could be some one-time block grants. That could be the governor and the Assembly putting money to refill the rainy day fund.” 

Even so, he said, “There’s nothing in the May revise that I would think would fundamentally change any of the decisions we’re making this year.”