A few months ago, the Chula Vista Elementary School District, the largest elementary school district in South San Diego County, was facing a bleak budgetary future. However, last month, the state of California came to the rescue.
Governor Gavin Newsom's May revision to his annual budget proposal contained billions in added funding for school districts. Combined with targeted cuts approved by the school board earlier this year, the additional state funds enabled district administrators to dial back cuts and some of their dire warnings about the district's fiscal future.
On Wednesday, district trustees approved a new contract with teachers that includes a one-time salary increase of 1.5 percent and raises the amount the district pays for teachers' healthcare. The district will now cover the entire health insurance costs for individual teachers and up to $23,200 per year for teachers with families.
If adopted by legislators later this year, the revised state budget would add nearly $3 million to Chula Vista Elementary's $453 million general fund budget. The proposed state budget also includes new benefits for teachers, restoration of post-COVID learning recovery funds, a five-year extension of funding for literacy coaches, and new ongoing funding for community schools that provide social service support to lower-income families.
The new funds enabled the district to shrink its current year deficit to $16 million. A combination of retirements, resignations, and internal fiscal adjustments also allowed the district to rescind layoff notices sent earlier this year to 41 teachers.
Nearly a dozen school counselors and social workers also regained their jobs.
“We’re ecstatic,” said teachers union president Rosi Martinez of the district’s improved financial outlook. “We were very concerned about losing some of our members.
We appreciate working for a district that is responsible, and a superintendent and school board responsible to keep the district [financially] solid.”
Martinez said she is especially excited about a provision in the proposed state budget that would create new ongoing funding for community schools. Community schools receive additional funds to hire staff and offer programs that encourage greater parent involvement and aim to remove financial and other barriers that often make it difficult for students from lower-income families to succeed.
One such school, Lilian J. Rice Elementary in southwest Chula Vista, has used its community school funds to hire a community coordinator, boost reading and math programs, and provide sports, clubs, and nutritional supports for students and their families.
Early results show the model helps keep kids in school and improves academic performance. Martinez said she is “incredibly excited” about the new community schools funding.
“Moving from something that was grant-dependent to now being able to look at having that money be ongoing would allow more of our schools to tap into that funding,” she said.
Not all the financial news is positive in the district. Despite the added state funds, the district still projects a roughly $13.6 million deficit in its upcoming 2026-27 general fund budget.
It also projects its economic uncertainty reserves will shrink by nearly $10 million over the next three years as funds from those reserves are used to backfill parts of the deficit. Lurking behind it all is a force confronting all San Diego County school districts: declining enrollment.
A recent district budget presentation forecast the district could lose more than a thousand students over the next three years, with average daily attendance potentially shrinking from 19,772 to 18,604. District Trustee Francisco Tamayo noted that the district’s “budget is just a function of [the number of] students.” In California, school funding is tied to a district’s average daily attendance.
“Less students [equals] less money,” Tamayo said.
For now, though, district families and employees are breathing a sigh of budgetary relief. “We feel very confident the district is in a good place,” Martinez said.
In other South County news, the Chula Vista City Council moved forward with a government overhaul initiative sponsored by a labor union representing construction workers. The measure would replace the city’s current term limits with a new system allowing elected officials three terms plus potentially unlimited additional terms if they wait a year before running again.
It also would raise city councilmembers’ salaries and create two new city council committees addressing budgetary and public safety issues. Councilmembers agreed to schedule a public discussion for a future meeting, at which they could vote to place the measure on the ballot.
Additionally, the Chula Vista Police Union expressed support for Acting Police Chief Dan Peak, with union president David Martinez praising the City Council and City Manager Tiffany Allen for improvements at the department. In National City, the council voted to end years of management instability by hiring Doug Schultze as the new permanent city manager and Heidi Skinner as the new city attorney.
Finally, South County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre, not up for re-election until 2028, is holding a fundraiser to pay off at least $67,000 in unpaid bills from her 2024 campaign for a vacant seat on the County Board of Supervisors.