Broken Budget: CVUSD leaders plan $44 million in budget cuts to prevent deficit and state takeover

Out of money.

That will be the case for The Coachella Valley Unified School District if leaders don’t cut spending dramatically, according to a financial warning from the Riverside County Office of Education.

News Channel 3 has secured the first interview with the District's Superintendent Dr. Francis Esparza since learning of the $44 million budget hole.

I-Team Investigator Jeff Stahl is holding officials accountable on how the district got here and what’s being done to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Dr. Esparza reached out to the County's Office of Education for support four months ago, shortly after being named Superintendent.

She reviewed the district’s budget and knew there was trouble.  

Now, she and the school board will need to right the ship or face a state administrator taking over district operations to get its budget back on track.

So, what’s going to be cut?

Our I-team investigation asked tough questions.

Esparza said, "We're going to right-size the district to make sure this doesn't happen again. This is not something that shouldn't have happened." 

Jeff Stahl questioned her saying, "In the meeting, you said, 'I inherited this.' "Yes," Esparza replied. Jeff Stahl asked, "What did you mean by that?

"So no, this didn't happen on my watch," Esparza said adding, "This is three to five years in the making. This is in COVID and coming out."

Last Thursday at the school board meeting, she and the District's School Board members were told the district could be $77 million in the red within two years leaving the district unable to pay its obligations.

During that presentation, Scott Price of the Riverside County Office of Education said, "So this is the law and you need to give us a budget and you need to give us a fiscal stabilization plan." 

Asking her about that meeting and notification, Esparza said, "We will need to have a layoff. How many people is it going to be? One? 10? 50? I don't know at this point in time, but I will be able to provide that in our stabilization plan."

More tough questions. What led to the budget mess?

During last week's school board meeting, Price said, "And this happened with many districts with one-time COVID dollars coming in and out."

In last week's board presentation, Riverside County's Office of Education said the district wrongly used one-time COVID payments to fund permanent job positions.

Price said, "January 18th. There was a bargaining agreement with the CVTA."

And the District gave staffers a four-percent cost-of-living adjustment when the state only ended up funding a one-percent increase. 

Esparza said, "They got that amount because they were given the wrong information. We were given the wrong information. We were told that we had a 17% reserve. We didn't have that." 

Now, Esparza, going over the numbers with Jeff Stahl, says she will present several difficult combinations of layoffs and cuts to programs and overtime to the school board next week.

Jeff Stahl reminded her of what the Office of Education representative had said, "This is your job. This is the board's supervisorial role. They could become an advisory board if the state has to send in an administrator."

"I will bring the recommendation, and my recommendation is going to be in the form of different scenarios," Esparza said adding, "If there are cuts to be made, you know, keep them away from the classroom. That's loud and clear."

Esparza says they are looking at all the books, and every single department, to identify and correct any overspending. 

She tells KESQ News Channel 3's I-Team that she's confident her Harvard Business School education in business finance will help get the job done while also making sure every classroom has a teacher and proper student support.

We should learn on Friday when next week's special school board meeting will happen.

Stay with News Channel 3 for continuing coverage of that meeting and the latest developments on the Coachella Valley Unified School District's projected budget shortfall.

READ MORE KESQ NEWS CHANNEL 3 RECENT COVERAGE OF CVUSD BUDGET CONCERNS

See our latest full I-Team investigation Broken Budget. It airs tonight on News Channel 3 all new at six.