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Board pauses elementary staffing realignment and keeps copy‑technician jobs after public outcry
Summary
Facing public and trustee concern about cuts to reading, ELL and other student support specialists, the board directed staff to revert recent elementary realignment and voted to retain copy‑technician positions while staff will return in March with updated budget assumptions.
Trustees and district staff on Feb. 10 spent significant time on draft 2026–27 budget assumptions and a controversial staffing realignment that would reduce or reassign reading specialists, ELL specialists, math specialists, librarians and copy technicians.
Chief business officer Sharon Yu presented a zero‑based budget approach, projected revenue assumptions and flagged the parcel tax’s scheduled expiration in June 2027 as a material risk. Finance staff member Bahadur Singh presented worst‑case multi‑year deficit scenarios if revenue assumptions do not hold.
Educators, classified staff and parents described the operational and learning impacts of proposed cuts. “Reading specialists are not interchangeable support,” Trustee Siegel warned, urging a study session to examine the implications. Classified employees and teachers emphasized that copy technicians and library back‑office roles enable instruction and student services.
After extended public comment and trustee discussion, a trustee moved to direct the superintendent to pause any and all restructuring, role eliminations and related cuts to specified student support services (reading specialists, ELL, math specialists, librarians, copy technicians) and to staff those roles for 2026–27 at the same scope as 2025–26 until the board has time to deliberate. That motion was debated as a procedural and Brown Act issue; a broader majority of trustees nevertheless expressed direction to staff to unwind the elementary realignment and to return to status quo while staff develops budget assumptions reflecting that direction.
The board then made a separate motion to prevent the elimination of classified copy‑technician positions and voted in favor (student preferential vote followed by board ayes), aligning the formal consent‑item vote with the budget‑assumption direction.
Union leaders and teacher representatives pressed for participatory planning. Tom Culbertson of the Palo Alto Educators Association expressed concern that major shifts affecting instruction should be guided by data and practitioner expertise, not unilateral management decisions; CSEA chapter president Meb Steiner urged the board to “walk with our kids” and protect classified staff who deliver critical services.
Staff said reversing the internal reassignments is operationally feasible and would start immediately if the board so directs, though it would have fiscal and HR impacts that will be detailed in the March budget assumptions update.
The board asked staff to return to the March meeting with revised budget assumptions that reflect the majority’s direction and with a study session scheduled to review drivers, tradeoffs and the proposed changes.
