Yakima school board approves plan to lay off more than 100 staff

More than 100 Yakima School District staff members could lose their jobs in the wake of student enrollment declines and budget shortfalls. 

Dozens of educators and other staff members packed tightly into the district’s central offices Monday night as the school board reviewed and approved the plan. Some of them left the meeting with the knowledge they would not have a job in the future.

Jacob Kuper, the district’s assistant superintendent of finance, said a 9% reduction in enrollment — 1,463 students — since the 2017-18 school year, would put the district at risk of insolvency unless program and service reductions were made. With enrollment projected to decline by a further 391 students for the 2024-25 school year, Kuper said the district was left with no other options. 

Paraeducators, academic specialists, counselors and English Language Development teachers will see the greatest reductions. Other layoffs include 10 assistant principals, one interpreter, two child care coordinators, five health assistants and multiple migrant student advocates.

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The layoffs will take effect for the 2024-25 school year.

The layoffs and program reductions totaled $14,669,456. Combined with reductions to materials, supply and service purchases, which total $1.5 million and other cuts made via attrition totaling close to $2.9 million, the sum of the district's reduction is $18,978,004. 

Kuper said an additional reduction to contract services from Educational Service Districts 105 and 112, Kinderhafen (contracted pediatric care) and Educlimber, among others, adds up to an additional $1,247,362, making the cuts about $20 million.

According to Kuper's presentation, from this academic year to the next, certificated full time equivalents will be reduced by 93.6 and classified FTEs will be reduced by 86.1. Total staff per 1,000 student FTEs will drop from 134 to 125.

Enrollment is projected to be 14,379 students next year, down from 16,223 at peak in 2017-18. The district currently has 1,172 certificated full-time equivalent staff, and 809 classified FTEs. The plan will take it to 1,078 and 723 respectively.

In fall 2023 the school board decided to use about half of its reserve funds, $14.4 million, to avoid starting the 2024-25 school year in deficit. 

Budget realities

Board members Graciela Villanueva, Norm Walker, Martha Rice and Ryan Beckett voted in support of the reductions. Raymond Navarro Jr. abstained from voting because his wife works for the district.

In addition to the drop in enrollment, Trevor Greene, the district’s superintendent, said an increase in the hiring of educators and support staff with COVID relief funding after the pandemic further drained the district’s funds.

Greene pointed to two major influences on district finances in recent years — the settlement of the McCleary lawsuit, which led to higher staff salaries, and $86 million worth of elementary and secondary emergency relief funds from the federal government to address COVID-related learning loss in students.

Greene said the district used the funds to hire the equivalent of nearly 200 full-time employees with the expectation that enrollment would rise in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think what was maybe overlooked was that there has been such a decline in enrollment across the state that we collectively as a system in education, believed that students that left for private education or online education would come back after the pandemic,” Greene said.

Greene said the district held on to those staff in anticipation of students returning, and to address pandemic-related learning gaps.

“We need to recalibrate and adjust our staffing levels as dictated by the funding we receive through the state, federally and through the local levy,” he said.

Greene thanked Yakima voters for passing the replacement levy and noted without it, the district would have faced a $58 million reduction plan, more than double the $20 million reduction plan it now faces.

Process

Though the board approved a specific number of layoffs, Greene said to take on an employee reduction, the district plan needs to over-reduce. 

"We have to reduce by seniority first and then we have to look at the certification of the individual to bring them back," he said.

Continuing with his example, Greene said reductions can include high demand positions that are not easy to fill like physics teacher, special education teachers and dual language teachers. In those cases, the district would call those laid off educators back and instead reduce lower demand positions. 

"So we might not actually reduce those positions, they would be called back because of their certification, which means you then have to go to number 11, 12 and 13 to get to to the reduction of 10," Greene said "The frustration across the board is that we have to reduce more than what we actually know will be reduced in the final count."

Greene said the process of laying off employees only to call them back can be an emotional roller coaster, but one that's necessary to align with the different collective bargaining agreements the district has.

Affected administrators and certificated and classified staff members will receive notice over the next four days, said district spokesperson Kirsten Fitterer. Non-administrative staff will have meetings with the district to discuss their contracts and options. Their work will end on the last day of class, June 18. Depending on the staff member, contracts will end on June 30 or July 31. 

Union reaction

During the meeting, Yakima Education Association President John Cavanaugh criticized the district's accelerated post-pandemic spending. 

He acknowledged the positive effects some of the spending had on the district, students, staff and facilities. He also called for the board to hold itself accountable for the spending and for its enrollment predictions that in part, led to that night's layoffs. 

After the meeting ended, Cavanaugh spoke to the Yakima Herald-Republic. 

"That was our main theme, there was no accountability," Cavanaugh said. "They took no accountability for it, did you hear an apology to the staff members in there from any board members, from the superintendent?"

During the meeting, board member Ryan Beckett acknowledged the situation could have been handled differently. 

"I appreciate... the concept that there are so many many different ways to approach budgeting," Beckett said. "Looking at the trending decline since I joined the board, I think it's very safe to say we that we should have been out in front of this earlier. That is not a critique, it is truly meant as an observation ... We have some serious introspection to do as a district."

Beckett mentioned the nation's declining birth rate, a factor that has brought down enrollment in school districts nationwide. He also acknowledged Yakima's growing population and encouraged the board to take a closer look into why students who left for home or private schooling during the pandemic did not return to public education. 

Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional information throughout.