VHS students protest over budget cuts, potentially losing librarians and counselors
VHS students scheduled a walkout Feb. 24 during nutrition and protested on Main Street against the budget cuts, chanting “Books over budget” and encouraging drivers on the road to honk in support. The protest began during nutrition at 10:15 a.m. and lasted until 12:50 p.m., the beginning of fifth period.
Floralene Mack ‘25 said, “I know some people were making posters and that there were some people running out…At first, I wasn’t really sure. There was really no direction yesterday to where the protest was going but what I ended up doing, me and a couple of friends decided that we should write an email and mass-send it to everyone [because] an email would do a little bit more help with not getting the budget cut [passed].”
The attendance office was open for students to write their ID number so that their absence from classes would be excused. VHS principal Marissa Rodriguez released a message on ParentSquare later that day at 12:40 p.m., explaining that “because the walk-out was not a school sanctioned event,[…]VUSD must adhere to attendance policies and laws; students who participated and missed called time will be marked tardy or absent accordingly.”
Instagram accounts such as Ventura Unified Education Association (@vuaestrong) as well as PSL Ventura County (@pslventura) as well as several VUSD-related accounts spread awareness of the regular Board of Education Meeting, hosted Feb. 25 at the Education Services Center, located on 255 W. Stanley Avenue. Part of the agenda was to approve the reduction and discontinuation of certain services for VUSD schools in the 2025-26 school year, such as counseling services and school librarians. The meeting began at 4 p.m. but was closed off to board members only. At 6 p.m., the meeting became open to the public. It was also streamed on YouTube.
Peyton Dahl ‘25 said, “I just feel like the libraries and [the] people in there [are] important to our school. They’re people too. And cutting their job for a budget cut and possibly losing our library, I just don’t think that makes sense.”
Ethan Jekogian ‘25 said, “I think it’s really important for us to keep our reading ability and if we don’t have libraries, schools won’t have as [much] access to books and I think there’s a lot of books that are really important to read like George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm because it teaches you a lot about society and I feel like if you didn’t have libraries, you don’t have the books and if you don’t have the books you [can’t] learn.”
The budget cuts became known to the public after a message from superintendent Antonio Castro was sent to all VUSD families Jan. 30 through ParentSquare.
In the message, Castro said, “[The] district has received one-time federal and state funds that provided crucial support intended to address significant student needs resulting from COVID. Unfortunately, although these temporary funds have run out, we continue to face the challenges of residual learning loss, ongoing declining enrollment, and the need to maintain and improve competitive salaries for staff.”
Dahl said, “Cutting budgets from the library, firing people and [cutting] our arts departments, I feel like to a certain extent I understand but also there are other areas in our school that don’t need as much money as they get, where they could cut a little but of their funding and [get] the money they need.”
Jekogian said, “I feel like a lot of the people who do these board meetings and stuff, they make the decisions for the schools, even though they don’t ask students and they don’t ask teachers and they don’t really understand the detriments it can have to the community around the school. If they did ask us and other people that are involved with our education system, it could change their ideals.”
Buena High School’s former librarian J.D. Levin (@notsosilentlibrarian) posted about the termination of his position after being told he would be safe from the budget cuts. Rebekah Acker is a PTA member at Lincoln Elementary (@bekacker) who also posted multiple times on Instagram. One post was about the potential elimination of Jaclyn Ibarra, Lincoln Elementary’s school counselor.
Other accounts encouraged attending the meeting and emailing VUSD board members Calvin Peterson, James Forsythe, Sabrene Rodriguez, Shannon Fredericks and Jerry Dannenburg as well as superintendent Antonio Castro. The VUAE and PSL Ventura County in particular encouraged its audience to wear red to the meeting in their posts.
