Parents, staff and students urge MPUSD trustees to keep school-based mental health staff amid $4 million budget plan

The Monterey Peninsula Unified School District board heard a draft fiscal stabilization plan Wednesday that would close an estimated $4 million ongoing gap by reverting several positions to pre‑COVID staffing levels, including reductions in mental health therapists and some school psychologist roles.

Superintendent Dr. PK Diffenbaugh framed the proposal as the beginning of a process driven by three structural pressures: declining student enrollment, the expiration of one‑time COVID relief funding and rising operating costs, including special education expenditures. He said the district plans public engagement Jan. 29 and Feb. 11 and expects to return to the board with a final fiscal decision on Feb. 24 to meet March 15 notification deadlines for personnel actions.

The draft calls for a mix of reductions across management, classified and certificated positions. In mental health staffing the plan would, for example, shift some high‑school allocations from two therapists to one and revert certain elementary and TK–8 allocations to pre‑pandemic formulas; the presentation said no site would be left entirely without a mental‑health professional but that caseloads would increase to earlier staffing models.

Dozens of employees, parents and students pressed the board during a lengthy public‑comment period. Student Jade Smith told trustees, “It shouldn’t be about a budget. It should be about the mental health of these students,” and Marina High senior Guadalupe Salas said a school therapist helped her through personal crises.

Multiple clinicians warned the cuts would harm continuity of care and student safety. “Cutting half of our team means cutting direct services to our most vulnerable populations,” said Cheyenne Ringer, a licensed marriage and family therapist who has worked in the district for a decade. Several mental‑health staff also described a growing state billing program: Claudia Welling testified that the team generated nearly $300,000 between September and November and projected approximately $2.5 million by June if current billing continues; clinicians said billing depends on maintaining licensed staff and that eliminating positions could reduce district revenue streams.

Classified‑staff representatives and CSEA leaders urged the board to seek alternatives to cuts that fall largely on student‑facing classified positions. Erin Banick, a 18‑year classified employee and union chapter president, said the current draft represents roughly 36 FTE reductions that she estimated could affect nearly 50 individual classified employees because many roles are less than full time.

Trustees asked staff to return with more detailed financial data, including a full report on the state billing program and the revenue it has produced to date, differentiation between grant‑funded and general‑fund positions, and modeling on how proposed reductions would change billing and service capacity. District staff agreed to bring a fuller report back to the board.

The superintendent emphasized the district is only at an early stage of the process and that the plan attempts to preserve core services and strategic investments while bringing the budget into a three‑year solvency path. “We are in the beginning of this process,” he said during the presentation, outlining the timeline for engagement and final board action.

Next steps: staff will return with requested billing and program‑sustainability data and additional analysis before the board’s next regular meeting on Feb. 10; the district signaled a final fiscal decision is tentatively scheduled for Feb. 24.