Pumas pinching pennies: how our current budget crisis is manifesting
People In a Classroom (The Puma Prensa / Rhea Bushan)
By Rheya Bushan and Maylin Rivas, Features Editor and Staff Writer
With all of the budget cuts, school shutdowns, and layoffs, many are wondering how exactly this is affecting Maria Carrillo High School? The answer is: MCHS might not have many issues in layoffs and school shutdowns but the budget cuts have been extremely vast.
One main problem that the district expressed, and attempted to fix, was MCHS’s overages. An overage is an excess or surplus amount of something, typically greater than the previous estimate; in this scenario, it refers to money. School overages do not directly cause teacher cuts; rather, they often result from a lack of sufficient funding. Considering the events of last year, this is a huge complication. In addition, Carrillo is the only school in the district that does not get Title I money, which puts us at a perpetual disadvantage compared to other high schools.
Like every year before, the district said that they were going to cut any overages and limit them, but the school did not expect them to act on it.
“When they said we’re not going to have overages, we very much took it to mean that we really have to do our best to make a schedule with no overages. However, of course, there’d be someone,” Madelyn Doyle explained. “We didn’t realize that they’d essentially play hardball.”
For the Associated Student Body (ASB) and Leadership teachers, there was a drastic and devastating change. The district took two teachers off the ASB program—Jordan Henry and Trevor Brady—in the fourth week of school, forcing them to create new English and History classes.
Since this happened, Doyle and Henry were forced to split up Doyle’s fourth period Honors Ethnic Studies English 2 class, Brady was given a new Government and U.S. History class, and Natasha Deakins was left to take all four ASB classes. She had to drop her English class, which she had been greatly looking forward to teaching—ever since she gave them up years ago to take on Leadership.
In Doyle’s fourth period class, many students felt an immense amount of dismay and anger towards this whole situation. When asked the question of how they felt about it, everybody had something to say.
Raisa Joshi, a sophomore, sadly replied, “I feel like not only did it affect the bonds between all of our classmates, it also affected Doyle, because she really loves all of her students.”
The sophomore class president, Yihe Wong, was quick to point out how unfair this was to Deakins, since “ASB is a huge organization of 145 students. We really need to let the district know that we need help running these classes; Deakins cannot run them all on her own. It’s too much.”
On the first day that Doyle’s class was split up, many students didn’t even understand what was going on. The students and their parents never even received an email or announcement that they had to change classes.
Doyle remembers, eyes glistening, the worst thing was “watching students come into my class, and then having to explain that they weren’t mine anymore. I mean, they’re my babies, it was so difficult!”
Despite the growing uncertainty and mounting financial pressure, one thing remains clear: teachers, students, staff, and families are doing their best to stay resilient in the face of hardship.
Our MCHS Parent Association has created the “Giving Campaign” of 2026-27 that is now in progress. Donations will be used to fund critical programs and pay for resources that enrich our learning here at Maria Carrillo High School
From creative problem-solving in the classroom to grassroots efforts like the Giving Campaign, the community is showing that it absolutely refuses to fold under the weight of budget cuts and bureaucratic decisions.
In January 2017, it was reported that the Santa Rosa City Schools District is “marching towards insolvency,” as said by the Press Democrat. It was believed that the district was approaching a fiscal crisis; this school year the community now knows we are facing just that.
The term “fiscal crisis” has been redefined a few times depending on economic conditions, political motivations, and evolving global markets. In this case, it refers to a budget crisis that occurs after an organization has spent more money than it collects in revenue.
In short, bills are overdue. The SRCS district is under severe financial distress.
In December 2016, SRCS entered into an agreement with the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) for a management review under the supervision of Diann Kitamura, the district superintendent at the time.
Operating from Kern County, FCMAT is a state-funded agency. Their goal is to assist local people in California K-14 educational organizations in identifying, preventing, and resolving financial data management matters. This team is there for school districts and other educational institutions for guidance surrounding these financial issues.
Through this agreement, a development for a multiyear financial project (MYFP) came into place. The MYFP takes a look at our present and upcoming two school years to validate the district's financial status. This would be displayed through interim reports. Last school year's first interim assumption concluded a negative declaration, meaning the district will not meet its financial obligations for the remainder of the fiscal year.
The way this is actually affecting the Pumas is not too apparent to students. The problem hangs over our faculty.
Within our state, there exists the California Education Code 41372, which is a requirement on our district's behalf to spend a minimum expenditure percentage of the money we are given on salaries as well as benefits of teachers and aides. Since our district is unified with elementary schools, the minimum percentage is 55%. According to the 2024-25 Unaudited Actuals Financial Report, we are under that minimum, with only 52.28% being used specifically for salaries.
Our teachers are currently receiving an average of $1.18 per student to fund each class section. Teaching under such uncertainty is unnerving for instructors as it directly affects their personal lives.
“It’s really hard to focus on the job I need to do when I’m worried about job security,” said Laura Hall-Grodrian, an English teacher here at Maria Carrillo High School. Similarly, she shares that it is frustrating to worry about how the lack of funds will disturb her teaching and the education of her beloved students. Principal Amy Wiese has also voiced her concerns of not wanting her staff to “lose their passion of teaching.”
The things to anticipate with these financial burdens are the expected closures/consolidations for 2025-26, as well as district region relocations. The closure of Comstock Middle School and Steele Lane Elementary is expected to fall within that time frame.
Despite the contract between SRCS and the Sonoma County Office of Education (SCOE) in proceeding with school consolidations, we still have yet to hit our goal from that extreme measure.
SCOE issued a letter to our newest Superintendent on Sept. 15 stating that over the last 16 reports, SRCS has been seen to be experiencing a negative trend concerning our certifications.
The upcoming 2025-26 planned expenditures will exceed our predicted revenue by $10 million. The district is currently at risk of running out of money by the start of the 2026-27 fiscal year. That will likely result in a state bankruptcy loan, which will then lead to the loss of local control over fiscal and operational decisions—an overall state takeover.
An SRCS faculty member disclosed earlier this month that an email had been sent out to all SRCS colleagues stating that by February 2026, we must identify solutions to solve our remaining $10-15 million gap in our budget.
How exactly the goal is to be met is still under discussion. Principal Wiese plans to continue to lead the school with hope and will, describing her Puma community to be incredibly creative, funny, and caring “I am just going to keep coming here and keep working for my Pumas,” said Wiese.