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The Redwood City School District approved $6.4 million in budget cuts Wednesday night, as declining enrollment and ongoing fiscal pressures continue to strain the district.
During its regular meeting Feb. 4, the school board voted 4-0 to approve the cost-saving measures, which will take effect in the 2026–27 school year. Board member David Li was absent.
“I know it’s not perfect,” board member Mike Wells said before the vote. “I know there are places that have real concerns about what’s going to hit their site. But I think this is about as good as it can get, and it keeps the focus on students so we can continue working toward having happy, healthy students who are thriving.”
Where the savings come from
According to a report by District Superintendent John Baker, RCSD is projected to save $3.5 million through a restructuring and reduction of services at the district office and $2.9 million from adjustments at the school sites.
The measures at the district office include eliminating the director of student services and the coordinator of community schools, and reducing administrative coverage and student services, Baker said during the meeting.
RCSD will also reduce costs for contracted special-education services when students no longer need them or have left the district, he said. In addition, the measures streamline “other districtwide services and operational areas to reduce ongoing costs while maintaining essential functions.”
School-site actions include reductions involving an administrator, teaching positions tied to the shrinking enrollment, funding for guest teachers and staffing reviews in transitional kindergarten through eighth grade, the superintendent’s report said.
“These adjustments recognize that our schools are serving fewer students overall,” Baker told the board. “Staffing must reflect that reality in order (for the district) to remain financially sustainable.”
The measures account for attrition at the schools, he said. That means “positions are reduced as vacancies arise due to retirements or staff departures. Our intent is to minimize this disruption to current employees whenever possible.”
He noted that the pre-K-to-fifth-grade schools will continue to have administrative support for Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings, as these sites have only one administrator – the principal. The other campuses with middle schoolers have both a principal and an assistant principal.
Guest teachers and IEP support
Previously, Baker proposed reducing IEP administrative support at all the schools. But a budget committee made up of parents, staff and administrators disagreed with that recommendation, Baker said, and after further discussion and feedback, he allowed for the preK-5 sites to keep that support.
The committee also disagreed with a recommendation to slash the guest-teacher position at each school from a whole full-time equivalent (FTE) to a half, the superintendent said.
Reducing that position to a half-time FTE would require schools to share a guest teacher, district spokesperson Jorge Quintana told the Pulse. A guest teacher can step in to lead a class when the regular instructor is out for training or other reasons.
The guest-teacher reduction will proceed, Quintana said, but schools plan to tap Measure U funds to help continue funding that position.
Measure U is an $85 parcel tax renewal approved by district voters in 2016, providing RCSD with about $1.9 million annually for 14 years.
“Guest teachers are currently funded from the general fund,” Quintana said in an email to the Pulse. “If a school is able to fund the other .5 FTE of their guest teacher using Measure U funds, then the full 1.0 FTE guest teacher would remain at their school. This process of analyzing how this will work at each school will take place within the next couple of months.”
But Orion Alternative School parent Steven Jeuck told the board he remains wary about the reduction in guest-teacher positions.
The district “wants to keep the cuts as far away as possible from the classroom,” Jeuck said. “However, I think that cutting the guest teacher directly affects the classroom at our school. … Having that same person there who can fill in and is known cuts down on disruption in everyday classroom activities when we have meetings and trainings.”
Moreover, he said, the guest teacher at Orion, which houses the Mandarin Immersion elementary program, is bilingual in that language. Finding substitutes for Mandarin instruction “is very difficult,” he said.
Why the cuts continue
The latest budget moves follow the $6.6 million in reductions and savings the district made going into this school year.
The serious belt-tightening is a result of districtwide enrollment – currently at about 6,400 children but once numbering 10,000 – projected to fall by more than 1,000 students heading into 2033–34, Baker said.
“The district is still operating programs and services designed for a large student population,” he said. To keep the district financially viable “requires intentional long-range planning and not just short-term fixes.”
Another factor behind the budget adjustments is that RCSD is not generating sufficient funding fast enough to keep up with increased operational costs, he said.
As a community-funded or basic-aid district, RCSD primarily derives revenue from local property taxes rather than receiving a significant share from the state.
The expiration of one-time state and federal pandemic-related relief funds has also affected the district budget, Baker said.
“I know that there are site-based cuts here,” Wells said during board discussion, “and we’re always going to feel them at the sites. But there really was a big effort to keep the reductions for the most part away from students (as much) as possible and even to rely on attrition where we can.”
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This is distressing. The education of every child matters to the success of our society. Those with the least are always hurt the most by cuts to public schools.
This is a heartbreaking situation for Redwood City kids. I know parents and community members tried to pass a parcel tax a few years ago to prevent this exact thing from happening but it lost by less than 100 votes. We’re surrounded by districts with higher parcel taxes (and thus better funded school districts). Hopefully we can get one passed here soon!
As a parent of a child in RCSD, this is scary to hear. I hope the parcel tax passes, so our schools can recover some of their funding.
Back to back years of $6m+ budget cuts is wild and irresponsible. Our kids are the future. We need to invest in their education. If RWC schools are funded by local parcel taxes then we need to increasing that funding so we’re not handicapping their future.
My son has a disability, and he needed to have his school services revised this year. I highlighted this issue in September as an emergency. If he does not have explicit teaching for certain skills he will be unable to participate in mIddle school. His future is in jeopardy. It is February and he still does not have a plan because of delays in evaluation and availability for meetings. Our school psychologist hours were cut in half in last year’s budget cuts to meet fiscal challenges. This has had a direct negative impact on our family and it makes me so sad. These new budget cuts will reduce the Special Ed funding by another 3 million. At the district office every dollar and every position is justified. There’s nothing else to cut. Administrators and teachers are on their last leg. We have had 4 teachers resign at our school this year. The biggest turnover we have ever had. Something has got to give. Our Parcel Taxes are 1/4th of every other surrounding district in the peninsula, yet we have higher rates of SPED and English Language learners.
As a parent of two kids, one receiving special education services, in the Redwood City school District, I am deeply saddened by these severe budget cuts, especially after our district endured such drastic cuts last year as well. We have already cut so many valuable supports and services and now we are facing having to trim even more when it doesn’t feel like there’s any more to trim. Great schools produce great students, who turn into a great community members. I can’t think of a more worthy investment than the education of our children. Whether anyone has kids at RWC schools or not, these kids literally are our future. Redwood City’s Parcel taxes are less than a quarter of the parcel taxes of all the surrounding areas on the peninsula. Passing this parcel tax would be a drop in the bucket for property owners compared to the enormous positive impact it would have on our children and on the future of our community.
This is an important issue for continuing the improvement of Redwood City that we’ve seen over the past decade. Maintaining good schools by giving them enough budget attracts and keeps people in Redwood City. Without that, our city can’t maintain the positive momentum that we’ve been enjoying for the past few years.
This is an important issue for continuing the improvement of Redwood City that we’ve seen over the past decade. Maintaining good schools by giving them enough budget attracts and keeps people in Redwood City. Without that, our city can’t maintain the positive momentum that we’ve been enjoying for the past few years.
This is madness!! Teachers in RWC are already underpaid and overworked! Most schools don’t have a vice principal, or he/she is shared with multiple schools. Classes are already too crowded. Students are lagging behind. And now … 6M less?? 17 fewer teachers positions? Class sizes to the maximum allowed by law?
And I’ve been donating pastels, tissues, whatever for the last many years!! Without considering the PTA donations without which we wouldn’t even have many enrichments and even some state mandated programs…
Glad some parents are getting together to try to get more funds into the district! If you can’t take this anymore, join https://strongschools4rwc.org/!