PLEASANTON — As this school year ends, the Pleasanton Unified School District School Board has voted to lay off over a dozen employees as part of $5 million in budget cuts.

The cuts approved this month come as the district struggles with significant financial issues due to declining enrollment and growing expenses.

According to the district, Pleasanton schools have lost 1,650 of over 13,000 students since 2018, or 11% of its student body, resulting in about $20 million in lost funding. The district also lost out on $41 million in COVID-19 relief money following the end of the pandemic, which funded several teachers positions for the past four years.

Evan Branning, president of the Association of Pleasanton Teachers, said these conditions are “pushing people to the breaking point.”

“We’re losing good teachers. It’s a challenge,” Branning said in an interview Friday.

The district also cut $7.6 million from its budget for the 2024-25 school year. PUSD officials reported in March that it expected to have over $210 million in general fund revenues, with projected expenditures at about $219 million.

The board on Tuesday presented proposals for a new contract agreement with APT, continuing discussions from a May 8 meeting where the board finalized the union’s last three-year contract, which will expire in June. Each year, the union must bargain with the district over annual salary, benefits and other items due to changing financial conditions from the state and federal governments.

The board’s May 8 vote finalized contract language which will reduce class sizes from 30 students per teacher to 24 students.

The union secured a 1% raise for teachers, retroactive from July 1, 2024, full healthcare coverage, a $5,000 special education stipend for psychologists and another $5,000 stipend for speech language pathologists and teachers for visually impaired students. The district’s medical contributions were increased by 9% from about $12,257 to about $13,355 per employee, effective Jan. 1, 2025.

“I think we all would have liked for it to happen a little bit faster,” Board President Justin Brown said at the May 8 meeting. “I’m thrilled to have an agreement.”

Board Trustee Kelly Mokashi called the contract approval a “huge celebration.”

“I can’t wait to see this momentum continue forward,” Mokashi said.

But Branning remains concerned about the future for Pleasanton’s public school teachers. He said many teachers’ classrooms are full — or pushing capacity caps — and the district’s financial future looks grim.

“I think our teachers deserve better pay and deserve better benefits,” Branning said. “The teachers are feeling the squeeze.”