IN A SPLIT VOTE on Wednesday, the Antioch Unified School District Board of Education moved to authorize roughly 300 layoffs to counter a $30 million deficit.
The cuts would hit special education departments particularly hard, with layoffs for department directors and the slashing of multiple paraeducator and paraprofessional positions, who are teaching assistants in special ed classrooms.
The votes for two items on the agenda involving cuts to classified and certificated staff were 3-2 in favor of the authorizations, with trustees Mary Rocha and Dee Brown both voting no. Pink slips to affected staff would go out mid-March and impact the 2026-27 school year.
Trustees who voted to make the cuts all acknowledged that it was a difficult decision, but said they were necessary in order to be fiscally responsible. Enrollment is declining, special education costs are growing, and state funding is unpredictable, according to the district.
Looming large is also the fear that if the district gets into enough of a financial hole, the state will move in and take over. AUSD is already under special county oversight due to its insolvency.
Board President Jag Lathan said the current quandary the board was in was “painful,” but that steps must be taken to avoid losing local control.
“You think getting taken over by the state is fun? It’s not,” she said.
In addition to cuts to special education, other positions on the proverbial chopping block range from custodians to vice principals.
Dozens of people lined up for the public comment portion of the meeting, jamming the room with people holding signs and waiting their turn to speak. The district’s overflow room was also full and multiple people waited outside the building who couldn’t get in at all.
The board was already taking flak from the community for giving itself a raise. In January, board members voted to quintuple their monthly stipend, from $400 a month up to $2,000, a point not spared during some of the public comments on Wednesday.
Only Rocha voted against the raise, basically saying it was bad timing in the wake of the district’s financial struggles.
‘We are not just numbers’
One by one, people came to the podium to express their concerns Wednesday.
Antioch parent Bree Simonson said cuts to special education could end up costing the district more money down the line by endangering its legal requirement to meet special education students’ individualized education programs, or IEPs.
“The district is already facing challenges in maintaining compliance with IEP requirements,” she said. “How will reducing staff improve this situation? This will cause further non-compliance, potentially resulting in legal action, financial penalties.”
Paraeducator Nicole Mendez said she has worked for the district for three years and it has brought her “nothing but joy and happiness.” She said having teaching aides in classrooms is essential and keeps children from falling through the cracks.
“During my three years, I’ve seen kids drastically improve, from not even being able to attend school, let alone sit in a seat, to loving school and wanting to come every day,” she said. “This — and I cannot stress this enough — is not possible without the help of paraprofessionals and behavior support staff.”
Danielle Watson is a parent of a school-age son with special needs who has challenges such as self-injurious behaviors and wandering away from safe areas. She said the district already has inadequate staffing and that cutting paraprofessionals from the mix would make a bad situation even worse.
“(My son) cannot function and his class cannot function without multiple aides,” she said. “Without adequate staffing, children like mine are not ‘underserved,’ they are vulnerable.”
Eventually, student Christina Webster took to the podium and addressed the board, passionately speaking up for her teachers and classmates.
We are not statistics. We are not just numbers. We are not just teachers and students. We are people!
Christina Webster, Student
“I’ve seen people who believed in me,” she said, her voice strong. “When I walked in, people probably just saw a ‘ghetto girl.’ But you know what they saw in me? They saw somebody who could go to Contra Costa College … They saw somebody who could take college classes and get that done. But do you know what y’all see? Y’all see statistics and money.”
Webster pleaded with the board to consider the people behind their actions.
“The decisions y’all make don’t just affect y’all,” she said. “We are not statistics. We are not just numbers. We are not just teachers and students. We are people! We are people! This is my childhood!”
When it was time to officially weigh in on the items, Rocha spoke briefly before voting no. She said the board needed an audit report before making such sweeping changes and she suggested the district put a freeze on expenditures such as travel and conferences.
Her announcement that she would be voting no brought applause from the audience.
“I’m not doing this so you can feel good about me,” she told the crowd. “I’m telling you what I feel and what I’m hearing. And I’ve been in this district so long … We’ve never been in this situation, never, and sometimes I feel like maybe that we’d be better off to have the state take us over and then make the decisions, because we’re not doing a good job.”