The clock is ticking toward the May 15 layoff deadline, and for at least 16 district elective teachers, the future is uncertain.

Under the education code, the San Ramon Valley Unified School District may reduce or eliminate particular kinds of services.

The March 15 deadline was set in place to inform teachers that their position may be removed for the following year but the final decision takes place in May.

Following last year, the district has been managing a multi-million dollar budget deficit, leading to an ongoing discussion on “right sizing” of staff. The budget deficit is a direct link to the staff cuts.

At the district’s Feb. 24 board meeting, Superintendent CJ Cammack explained why staff layoffs are happening in correlation to the district’s budget.

“85-88% of our budget is people,” Cammack said. “Because what we do is in the service of children,”

Key reasons following the cuts are declining enrollment, loss of revenue, budget reductions and the impact of online courses.

Cammack explained at the meeting that the board identifies where to make cuts by looking at the past history of course signups and making projections of future demand using the current trends in declining enrollment. Layoffs are then decided based on the number of sections of each course that are cut from the master schedule.

After clarifying declining enrollment projections and student course requests, administrators then needs to identify where they may need to remove certain specific courses from the master schedule.

“The education code outlines that [layoffs are decided] strictly based on seniority,” Cammack said.

Statistics teacher Bob Allen is a part of the organizing chair of the SRVEA Board. According to Allen, the district has other ways of handling loss of revenue and budget reductions amongst elective teachers.

“They are choosing the easiest path, which just means [they’re] going to cut everyone,” Allen said.

Tracy Tierney, a member of SRVEA, spoke up during the Feb. 24 SRVUSD board meeting.

“It is disappointing to know that [the SRVUSD board members] sitting in front of me have seemingly forgotten what unified and school represents in SRVUSD,” Tierney said.

Staffing at Cal High has been low due to a majority of reasons. One of the most affected programs is the physics department.

Senior Lucas Chi shares his opinions on the district’s approach to state grants and funding in the Feb 24. SRVUSD board meeting.

“We need to be looking for every single way possible to use the grant money in ensuring that [STEM and World Language] programs still exist in the future,” Chi said.

World Language teachers in the district express their love for the dual literacy programs.

“So many kids’ lives changed and their world is opened up due to our language classes,” Lacy Low, a Spanish teacher at Iron Horse Middle School shares her students’ experiences with world language classes in the SRVUSD Feb. 24 board meeting.

Many students have taken world language to not only fulfill their language credits but to find a sense of belonging.

“I have met some amazing people through my French classes,” junior Pragati Tumma said, recalling her first French class in freshman year. “And all of these classmates are currently still my close friends,”

Junior Liana Dungca advocates for the preservation of world language classes to ensure that culture immersion remains the same.

“Language classes deserve equal resources to other departments,” Dungca said.

This current friction is the latest chapter in a budget battle that began last year, when the SRVUSD Board of Education tasked management with cutting over $26 million from the district budget.

The board approved budget reduction plan included increased class sizes, eliminated all elementary school counselors, cut half of the social worker team, eliminated support counselors, and issued over 200 layoffs for staff.

The San Ramon Valley Education Association (SRVEA) advocated the loudest after the cuts were made.

Their team encouraged the SRVUSD board to contact the governor’s office for additional state funding. The board listened and did so but only after educators agreed to three furlough days (pay cuts) per school year specifically to try and save elementary class sizes and mental health staff.

In his plan for deficits, Governor Gavin Newsom included the block grant or a discretionary grant, which provided flexible funding for school districts, allowing roughly $16 million to be returned to the district.

While SRVEA encouraged management to use the money for students and to bring back programs that were initially cut, the board chose to restore furlough days for management.

After the state released more money, two of the three unions in the district voted to get their furlough days back.

Teachers voted for having only two of the three days back and allowing one to be left so the money could fund other programs for students.

Following the state’s annual substantial money grant, SRVEA and the district have come to a memorandum of understanding.

“We will negotiate what that money is and we are going to negotiate that most of it goes to students,” Allen said.

SRVEA allocated roughly $1.3 million towards fourth and fifth grade class sizes to remain the same and bring back elementary school counselors.

The district is currently moving toward a 7% reserve target. While the state minimum is 3%, many California districts maintain higher reserves to protect against ‘fiscal insolvency’ (state takeover) and to ensure they can meet payroll during unexpected revenue drops.

“We have to long-term restructure how we do things,” Cammack said.

According to Allen, the SRVUSD board does not value the students.

“The district office put their salaries over students,” Allen said. “They chose to get all their money back while the teachers chose not to,”

While the current friction has divided staff and management, both sides are looking toward upcoming negotiations to find a middle ground. As the May 15 deadline approaches, stakeholders are waiting to see how the district balances its goal of fiscal recovery with the community’s desire to preserve diverse elective offerings.