WATSONVILLE >> Ahead of a potentially contentious school board meeting Wednesday, Superintendent Heather Contreras and other Pajaro Valley Unified School District officials hosted a media briefing Tuesday to explain and provide context for a pair of resolutions on Wednesday’s agenda proposing to cut up to 100 positions in the 2025-26 academic year.

The two resolutions, one for classified employees and another for certificated employees, are calling for the board to reduce 80.8 full-time teachers and 19.75 classified employees, including three mental health clinicians, 10.25 general instructional assistants and three site technology support technicians. The biggest cuts proposed on the certificated side include 12 elementary release teachers, eight elementary intervention teachers and four high school career technical education teachers.

Contreras explained that the 80 certificated positions proposed for budget reductions include 14 retiring teachers, 39 teachers who are not credentialed and on a temporary one-year contract, seven teachers on temporary status and 11 intern teachers. The remaining 35.5 positions were reduced due to lost one-time funding and were made by the Sustainable Budget Team, approved by the board Jan. 15.The resolutions have left plenty in the community upset, with a rally planned before Wednesday’s meeting and an online petition circulated by the Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers, urging the board not to approve the resolutions, arguing that the reserve is high enough to spend money elsewhere.

“The district is choosing to impose devastating austerity measures that will harm our students, families, and community,” the petition reads. “These layoffs will lead to increased class sizes, reduced student support, and a weakened educational experience for all.”

Contreras said transparency has been a goal of hers since she was hired as superintendent, and pointed to the Sustainable Budget Committee as a way of including the community. The committee was formed with 24 community members, including parents of different grade levels, teachers, administrators and community members.

“These were all volunteers who knew that, at the end of the process, they would be making a recommendation to the board on where they saw the first cuts to be made,” she said. “Those recommendations were surrounding positions that had been added with one-time funding.”

Another issue adding to these decisions, Contreras said, was the continued declining enrollment, namely those no longer attending the district’s schools.

“In the state of California, the way we are funded is specifically tied to the number of students who attend our schools and the number of days they’re attending,” she said. “There is no other way that we’re funded. We do get grant funding, and our district is particularly good at finding grants to increase and improve services to our students, but that grant funding is extra and in addition to our base funding services.”

Contreras said the district is projected to lose 500 students next year.

“That’s a lot of students that equates to quite a bit of funding,” she said.

Regarding the Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers’ claims of the district having a high reserve, or $56 million as of its first interim budget report in December, Chief Business Officer Jenny Im said California school districts are required to present multiyear budget projections each cycle and meet the minimum reserve for economic uncertainties.

“For the size of our school district, our required reserve is 3%,” she said. “That is not what I would say is a healthy reserve, it’s not what I would say is a recommended reserve and that is not the average reserve that we see in school districts across California. That is the legally mandated minimum floor that the state of California is requiring.”

Im also said the past three budget years have not factored in negotiated increases because the district has not settled with any of its bargaining units during those years. The Local Control Funding Formula — the main source of funding for general education programs — has decreased by approximately $10 million over the past year.

“Here we are now at this crossroads,” she said. “We have lost the one-time SR money from the federal and state governments that we use to increase services and supports, including staffing. Our LCFF money, which is our ongoing bread and butter, from one year to another: $10 million decrease, and that’s going to continue. We lost 18% enrollment this past decade.”

Contreras said the resolutions are the first step in an ongoing process. If approved, the next step would be to look at seniority lists, as all the reductions are based on seniority. The district is also looking to ask the board to approve a $10,000 retirement incentive to mitigate the cuts.

Regarding what would happen if the resolutions are not approved, Contreras said it would put the district at risk of deficit spending and a possible state takeover.

“What that means is we were not able to be financially responsible to make the decisions as a district, and then the state comes and makes those decisions for you,” she said. “You lose your ability as a community to make decisions for your own students as you see fit.”

Contreras also said the district would still have approximately 15 mental health clinicians even with the cuts.

“We’re not by any means closing the program at all,” she said. “We will always need counseling.”

The resolutions will mark the first time staffing reductions will be voted on in an open session.

“We believe that our community deserves to see the actions that PVUSD is taking,” said Contreras.

Contreras acknowledged that the decisions are difficult, but it is the board’s goal to lessen the impacts of those cuts.

“We are also trying to mitigate those reductions by engaging in activities and things we can do such as offering a $10,000 retirement benefit to our teachers to help mitigate and soften the reductions that we need to make,” she said.

The board will meet at 6 p.m. Wednesday on the top floor of the Watsonville City Council Chambers, 275 Main St. The rally is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. in front of the library on the bottom story.