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The Menlo Park City School District’s board gave a green light to cut $1.2 million next school year and aims to reduce expenses by a total of $4 million over the next three school years as it seeks to balance the budget.
Since last September, Menlo Park City School District (MPCSD) Superintendent Kristen Gracia has been looking for ways to reduce the district’s recurring budget deficit, now that pandemic-era programs have ended and reserve funds are drawing down.
The board approved Gracia’s final recommendations, which would see the district’s budget reduced by between 1% and 2% annually, starting with the next school year and continuing to the 2028-29 school year.
“MPCSD must stop deficit spending and create more stability through prudent planning,” Gracia told the board. “This fiscal exercise is not a situation where MPCSD is falling off a financial cliff. Reducing our budget by 1-2% for a few years is a manageable task that is not only necessary but fiscally responsible as we look to the future.”
Among the cuts taking effect next fall, the district will be eliminating the elementary school world language program which will save $365,000, according to Gracia. The Spanish immersion program will remain intact. While Gracia initially suggested canceling the fifth grade band and orchestra program, after community outreach, her final proposal preserves it.
Top of mind for board members is the district’s dwindling reserves. In the 2018-19 school year, the district had a robust reserve fund of 22.9% of its annual budget, which was higher than both the state average for elementary schools (20.5%) and the district’s goal of 20%. However, by the 2023-24 school year, MPCSD’s reserves had fallen to 16.4% while the average for elementary school districts statewide had risen to 25.5%.
According to Gracia, the district’s reserve fund would only be able to pay staff at its elementary and middle school campuses for two months.
“We are just trying to make the best of a seemingly bad situation,” said board President Jed Scolnick.
At its March 5 meeting, the board approved layoff notices for a total of 7.28 full time equivalents positions, including world language teachers, teaching aides and a district office receptionist. The district is required to issue layoff notices by March 15.
Menlo Park’s current budget situation stems from a variety of factors, including the requirement to start transitional kindergarten, increased payments to the state’s retirement system and compensation increases to district staff, according to district board member Scott Saywell said
“We’ve been able to manage through these significant increases largely because the enrollment has gone down,” Saywell said.
Saywell also said that he wanted to keep a promise to voters from the last time the district asked for a parcel tax.
“The rationale was we are cutting the budget, we are asking for a new parcel tax, and we are not going to come back to you with another one for a very long time,” Saywell said. “We said that with this big ask, we are going to be good stewards of your investment into the district and we are going to do a really good job of managing our budget.”
In total, the cuts for the 2026-27 school year are $172,000 less than the board had wanted, but Superintendent Gracia said she is hopeful that the district will be able to find more room to trim the budget in future years.
Gracia will present more specifics about the reductions for next school year when the board votes on the budget later this year. Additionally, she said that when new data and estimates come out, the district will refine the plan.
Since the Menlo Park school district is planning to cut 1.2 million dollars for the next school year, including laying off half a dozen teachers and teacher aides, and to cut expenses by 4 million dollars over the next three years, how does the Menlo Park City Council figure we can add some 700 new students to our school district if the 345 units of downtown parking lot housing gets built, and maintain the educational quality of our schools?