After over a month of discussions and debate on how to address San Luis Coastal Unified School District's $6.3 million budget deficit, the board of trustees came to a decision at Tuesday night's meeting.
Two resolutions were proposed to the board, but only one was passed.
Resolution 9.1 outlined the reduction of counseling staff at both the elementary school and middle school levels. Per this resolution, four and a half elementary school counselors would be cut and one middle school counselor would be cut.
Public comment on this resolution lasted around an hour, and parents and staff spoke about how important they feel counseling services are to students.
"Counselors are at the forefront of caring for our students when they are in the most need," shared one parent.
The other speakers that followed shared that sentiment and the board of trustees was divided following the statements.
"I'm going to support making these cuts that are proposed under this resolution with a very heavy heart," said Marilyn Roger, the board president, "but acknowledge that I believe I'm doing the right thing fiscally to fulfill my responsibilities as a trustee."
"Even before these comments were shared this evening," said board member Robert Banfield. "I had determined in my mind that I would not be able to support any resolution that would eliminate counselors."
When it came time to vote on this first resolution, it failed, four votes against to three in favor.
One parent in attendance at tonight's meeting told KSBY she was expecting it to pass, despite her efforts to advocate against it. She said she was relieved when it didn't.
"Thank you to the board members who voted with their conscience and voted against the measure," said Jewell Lim, a mom of a student at Bishop's Peak Elementary School. "It was very tender, you could tell they obviously took the budget seriously, but it's kids."
The second resolution brought before the board outlined the reduction of a larger portion of staff. Resolution 9.2 outlined these cuts.
Twelve instructional aides, one English learner instructional aide, one physical education instructional aide, one counseling aide, one before/after school aide, one and a half office clerks, one human resources technician, one executive assistant in the superintendent's office, and one payroll specialist.
There were no public comments on this resolution, and the board voted unanimously to approve it, 7 to 0.
Following the meeting, Dr. Eric Prater told KSBY that he was hopeful additional funding could be found before these cuts had to be made before the start of the next academic year.
At Tuesday night's meeting, a representative from PG&E spoke during public comment and seemed hopeful of reaching a legislative agreement with the district, regarding more funding.
The district is still pushing for a donation from PG&E in order to avoid cuts while they wait for legislative discussions to begin.
