Coachella Valley Unified meeting draws residents' pleas as district outlines layoffs, cuts to nurses, library staff and wellness centers

Coachella Valley Unified School District trustees on Feb. 11 heard repeated pleas from parents, nurses, students and staff to preserve nursing positions, wellness centers and instructional media assistant hours as the district moves toward budget-related layoffs in June 2025.

The board met in a packed room where Dale Wiseman, identified as a labor representative for CSA, told trustees the district’s classified staff are bearing disproportionate cuts. “Classified didn’t create any of them. We’re not gonna put 200 people out on the street,” Wiseman said, urging the board to make local decisions rather than defer to Riverside County.

The appeals followed a superintendent’s presentation that said staff layoffs would take effect in June 2025, with notice letters to employees in March. Superintendent Sparks stated the district has identified roughly $22 million in other resources and said the larger multi-year gap to close totals about $60 million across 2025–26 through 2027–28.

Why it matters: trustees must adopt a balanced budget or face state intervention, and speakers said cuts to medical and mental-health staff would directly affect student safety and access to learning. Parents and school nurses described daily responsibilities that they said cannot safely be shifted to unlicensed staff.

Nurses and medically fragile students

Noelle Deanna, introduced as a registered nurse and credentialed school nurse, told the board a district proposal would eliminate seven of nine registered nurses and leave two district RNs to oversee the whole district. “Eliminating…