After months of discussion, FUSD’s Board of Education, with input from SURFBoardE, makes concrete decisions to bring the cut target to $24.7 million
Staff Writer
The FUSD Board meeting on January 8th consisted of staff presentations recommending actions the Board should take to balance the outstanding budget deficit of roughly $22 million, according to district estimates.
District staff first presented FUSD’s total one-time funding loss of $9.3 million, which they attributed to various revenue sources, including the expiration of the Learning Recovery Block Grant, a COVID-era grant from the federal government.
Additionally, they displayed the suggested target cuts from September, October, and December, which were made to address the structural deficit as financial information was updated. These targets were adjusted from $27 million to $25 million, and eventually to $19.8 million, alongside the $9.3 million in one-time funding loss. These reduction plans aimed to end deficit spending and ensure that the Board can meet its goals for financial solvency in the future.
The current budget, before reductions, sets aside $21.9 million for the planned deficit spending necessary to fund staffing and operations for the remainder of the school year, helping the Board plan ahead of potential insolvency in 2026-2027.
According to the Board, this would result in benefits such as a reduced cut target of $24.7 million, improved compensation offers to employees, a positive certification from the Alameda County Office of Education (ACOE), and the end of deficit spending by the 2028-2029 school year.
The next slides outlined steps the Board plans to take to reduce the general fund budget by the target cut amount of $24.7 million, which include changes across the district and potential layoffs—something the district has said it hopes to avoid.
SURFBoardE, an advisory group to the Board of Education composed of FUSD middle and high school students, has advocated for the student perspective throughout the budget-balancing process. Cecilia Church (12), one of AHS’s SURF representatives, said, “A huge thing that’s been on the table for many years and has been continuous in conversation was LMTs,” or Library Media Technicians.
Due in part to SURF advocacy, the district did not follow through with proposed cuts to LMTs, which would restrict the hours libraries are open, according to Church and Sriya Neti (12), SURF’s representative to the Board.
As evidenced throughout the process, budgeting is a matter in which the fiscal goals of the Board of Education may be at odds with the students it serves. “I sympathize with [the Trustees]. These are elected community members, and a lot of them are long-time community members, parents, [and] former educators. At the same time, the student perspective is really necessary because [Trustees are] in [their] 40s, 50s, 60s and [they’re] looking at it fiscally, ‘this is exactly what to do,’” said Church.
Neti, speaking on the actions SURF has taken to represent students throughout the process, said, “We held a budget open forum on October 16th, where students from all over the district could come and talk directly with the superintendent, the district’s budget director, board trustees and other budget budget staff to ask questions about the budget.”
Pitching these meetings as an opportunity for students to tangibly impact final decisions, Neti said, “What the students said was prioritized.”
Eagle Era 
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