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Petaluma City Schools approves staff reductions, pledges to keep San Antonio open while planning earlier interventions
Summary
After hours of public testimony defending San Antonio and other alternative programs, the Petaluma City Schools board approved amended reductions totaling roughly $661,000 that reconfigure alternative-education staffing but keep San Antonio open for 2026–27 while the district designs earlier intervention supports.
Petaluma City Schools approved an amended package of certificated staffing reductions Tuesday evening that the district says will trim roughly $661,000 from the secondary budget while reallocating some capacity to prevention and earlier interventions at comprehensive sites.
The reductions (Resolution 2526-34, amended and approved) include a net reduction of roughly 4.0 full-time equivalent general-education certificated positions across alternative-education programs and a partial reduction in administrator/counselor time intended to free 1.0 FTE to pilot interventions in comprehensive schools. Administrators told the board the intent is to preserve alternative pathways: Carpe Diem and Sonoma Mountain will continue unchanged; San Antonio will remain open for 2026–27 with a staffing configuration the district says will continue to serve current students.
The meeting was dominated by more than an hour of public testimony from current and former San Antonio students, teachers and parents, who described the campus as “a lifeline” and credited staff with individualized support that helped students graduate. San Antonio teacher Nikki Jackson told the board the site offers smaller classes and more intensive, wraparound supports and urged the district to center student voices in any restructuring. Former students described turning their lives around at San Antonio and warned that closure or deep cuts would push some students to drop out.
District staff and task force members defended the work as data-driven. Administrators said their transcript reviews showed that many students who ultimately enroll in alternative programs first show failing grades as early as seventh grade, and they framed the proposal as an effort to interrupt a “wait-to-fail” pattern by shifting some intervention capacity upstream into junior high and early high school. The task force has proposed piloting a prevention/intervention 1.0 FTE reallocated from the reductions and said it will continue meeting and report back as the district implements changes. The committee set a re-evaluation checkpoint for October 2026 to review the reconfigured supports and San Antonio’s enrollment and outcomes.
Board members pressed for concrete plans and timelines: several trustees asked for more student voice in the task-force work (district staff said students participated in earlier task-force sessions but were not present for the five technical meetings in January–February and committed to adding empathy interviews and further student input). Trustees also requested facility and cost breakdowns; staff provided an initial utilities estimate for the sites cited in discussion, noting roughly $25,000 in annual utilities for San Antonio and about $5,000 for Valley Oaks.
The reductions package was amended during the meeting to remove a proposed 1.0 FTE cut to an elementary theater-arts VAPA position after questions from trustees, and the board approved the amended resolution by voice vote. Administrators emphasized the reductions were part of a broader fiscal package the district is implementing and that they intend to pilot the upstream interventions in 2026–27 and report back on outcomes. The board directed staff to continue consultation with labor partners, to expand student engagement in redesign work, and to provide cost and capacity analyses for alternatives to school-site reductions.
What’s next: San Antonio will remain open for the coming year; the task force will continue meeting and the board will revisit progress and data in October 2026. The district said it plans to design the upstream intervention role over the spring and summer to begin pilot supports at selected comprehensive sites in 2026–27.
Attributions: The concerns and student stories in this article are drawn from public comments and testimony at the Feb. 26 board meeting by students, families and staff (Nikki Jackson; Tiana Grisbick; Daniel Vieira; Jaime Cardenias; Jesus Barajas; Heather Mackin; Jordan Pacheco; Austin Roberts) and from task force presentations by district leaders and administrators.
