Ventura Unified School District meeting focused on controversial topic of budget cuts needing to be made
The VUSD board of education has the responsibility of managing the growth and well being of all the VUSD schools and students from elementary level to high school. With this job of finding the overall best solution across the district comes the difficulty of finding solutions, which in the past has shown to affect teachers and staff. Currently, the problem VUSD faces is declining enrollment, which has created a new purpose of the School Closures Advisory Committee (SCAC), whose membership was approved at the last special board meeting on Jan. 27. This meeting was held to discuss the long-term solutions to declining enrollment, approximately 300 students per year according to the district’s data analysis, starting with the 2026-27 VUSD school year.
VUSD board president James Forsythe said, “The release of temporary employees is something we do every year, not just this year. If the need for any of these positions is established before or during the 2026-27 school year, they can be considered for reemployment during the next school year.”
On Jan. 6, the VUSD website added more information on the SCAC, clarifying that they will be analyzing pure data coming from the schools and providing recommendations to the board of education based on the data, who will make the final decisions publicly. The committee members will consist of teachers, staff, students and families estimated to begin meeting in March of this year. VUSD is assuring families that the SCAC will not be making final decisions and any decisions on the matter that get passed will not be set in place until the 2027-28 school year.
On Feb. 10 the school board meeting was held, where board members discussed matters specific to the reduction of Lemon Grove staff and the passing of a list of temporary teachers who would be losing their jobs at the end of the 2025-26 school year.
The discussion of these items went in order of staff presentations by Gina Wolowicz, Greg Bayless and Ahsan Mirza, board questions, public comments, board deliberation and board decisions.
Director of communications and public information officer Marieanne Quiroz said, “Based on Board discussion, there was consensus to maintain current middle school staffing for the 2026-27 school year. This means that the low-enrollment reduction criteria typically used when monitoring course/class enrollments will not be applied to Lemon Grove at this time so that the middle school could be considered as an alternative location, should the Board of Education decide to close either a middle school or TK-8 school as a result of the School Closures process. We do not anticipate this item returning prior to the completion of that process.”
Concerning these matters, there were over 39 public comments. During the meeting, the school board of education proposed that Lemon Grove lose two teachers, which would leave grades six, seven and eight to be combined under one teacher. At the end of the meeting, the board decided to delay the conversation of Lemon Grove to the following meeting. The matter of the temporary teachers and staff was originally being proposed as letting them go at the end of the 2025-26 school year, with much assurance that they would be able to work under VUSD again if positions became available. This item was passed, meaning temporary employees will no longer have a position under VUSD for the upcoming school year. This item also leaves much unassurance for many VUSD staff as to what the future holds for their employment.
Xenix Medina ‘26 said, “My opinion the situation is its causing a lot of stress on campus and I can see how it’s causing our teachers and admin to react very stressed and it’s causing negative feelings on campus and it’s negative energy on campus but I do think that it is necessary to get rid of these jobs sometimes we dont have the funds for it it’s just a sad thing.”
There are also unions like the Ventura Unified Education Association (VUEA) that was established in 1967 to advocate for public educators and fair working conditions. They represent certificated educators which include teachers, counselors, librarians and others in VUSD. They are also under the umbrella of the National Education Association (NEA) and the California Teachers Association (CTA). The other union is Ventura Education Support Professionals (VESPA) who is ranked by classified workers. These include bus drivers, custodians, office workers and other jobs. They have contract language that protects their rights, working conditions and they negotiate health and welfare. Their main goal is to keep everyone’s rights protected under the contract.
President of VUEA, Sarah McLaughlin said, “As educators, we have both a professional and civic responsibility to speak up when decisions affect students, staff and the overall quality of education in our district. The recent board meeting involved issues that directly impact classrooms and learning conditions, including a reduction in force and bargaining issues. When that happens, it’s important for the board to hear from the educators who experience those impacts firsthand. Our goal in speaking was not to create conflict, but to provide perspective, advocate for thoughtful decision-making and ensure that student needs remain at the center of every discussion.”
The best outcome for VUEA in the future meetings would be transparency and a commitment to collaboration. Wishing for decisions that are student-centered and made with input from the educators who will implement them. VUEA works for stable learning environments, student safety, student opportunities, adequate staffing, mental health and academic support for the students. They hope to look more at the list of positions that they are considering to get rid of and take their time to look at the data. Additionally, they hope for a stronger collaboration between educators, district leadership and the school board.
President of VESPA, Carol Peek said, “I feel like they already knew, that is my feeling because they must have already discussed it, maybe in a close session ahead of time. Because there was not a lot of public discussion. So I think they already knew, there is still a chance that they can rescind, we have until May 15 for them to bring any positions back. So we will continue to go to board meetings, we will continue to voice what we feel, we will continue to fight for jobs that we feel are really important for students. So yeah it’s not over, it just started.”
