Newman-Crows Landing Unified District Board of Trustees voted 3-2 to reduce 17 staff positions before the start of the 2026-27 school year at the Feb. 9 Board of Education meeting. Board members Derek Wach and Lyzette Gonzalez voted against the motion.

The decision comes as the district navigates the task of reducing a close to $5 million deficit within the next two years. 

Certificated and classified staff positions affected by the decision include a TK-8 counselor, elementary teacher, high school teacher, part-time teacher, account clerk, instructional aides and custodian.

One of the reasons for the layoffs is declining enrollment, said Superintendent Justin Pruett. The district has dealt with declining enrollment since the 2023-24 school year, as 2,981 students were enrolled this year, according to the interim report presented during a Dec.11 special meeting. That trend is expected to continue into the next year with 2,921 projected enrollees.

Pruett said the district didn’t give layoffs notices in the past because enrollment was increasing annually. He added that the district recently had 89 kindergarteners preregistered in one evening and that it could “pull back some of those layoff notices,” if kindergarten registrations continue to increase.

“It’s not going up right now, so we have to give some notices just in case if we don’t get enough [registrations],” Pruett said. “Tough times, but we are trying to get out there and get the numbers quickly, so we can let people know.”

During the Dec.11 meeting, Board President Don Cabral suggested that the district should focus on making $2.5 to $3 million cuts this school year. He added that there also should be a plan to minify the cuts, if possible.

As outlined in resolutions No.25/26/06 and 07, NCLUSD determined it was necessary to reduce or eliminate certain services offered by the district.

Claudia Diaz, a bilingual instructional aide at Von Renner Elementary and the President of the California School Employees Association Newman-Crows Landing Chapter 551, told the board during public comment that the layoffs “may look like a budget on paper, but in reality they come at a higher cost.”

“I realize that the board is facing difficult financial decisions. No one doubts the complexity of your role, but leadership is not just balancing budgets, it is about protecting the people we make our mission possible,” Diaz said. “If we truly believe in supporting students and their families, then we must also support the staff that support them everyday.”

In a phone call with the Westside Connect on Thursday, Diaz said the layoffs could impact the staff’s morale. She added that the CSEA are committed to working with NCLUSD in hopes of keeping the positions.

For the past three months, the Newman-Crows Landing Teachers Association and CSEA have been in bargaining negotiations with the district.