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The Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District Board of Education at last Tuesday’s special meeting directed district officials to create a list of budget reduction options based on stakeholders’ input — a process Superintendent Torie Gibson said was already used to create an existing list of options.
However, the board tabled its discussion of previously prepared options during their Jan. 13 meeting amid public outcry over choices including staff cuts, the closure of two elementary schools and the phasing out of IB at Granada High School.
As a result of the board’s directives at the Jan. 20 meeting, school sites are no longer eyed for potential closure.
Meanwhile, the board is faced with a deadline of Feb. 24 to approve final cuts — an extension from the previous plan of approving reductions at their Feb. 10 meeting — to meet the district’s goal of making ongoing reductions of approximately $14.8 million for the 2026-27 school year.
“I will go seek additional input, absolutely, and we can revamp somewhat of the formatting on that,” Gibson said of the list of reduction options.
“The number we have to get to is going to be deep,” she added. “We will not be able to keep it away from kids, unfortunately. That’s how deep we have to go.”
After district and teachers union negotiators reached a tentative agreement last month, the board directed Gibson to meaningfully collaborate and repair relations with stakeholders as well as create a list of reduction options for the board’s consideration, Board President Steven Drouin said.
“However, the board as an entity did not give much input on the process and direction,” he added.
During Tuesday’s discussion lasting over an hour, trustees agreed on the direction — Facilitate the creation of a multi-tiered approach to budget reductions and their anticipated impacts, informed by assistant superintendents, directors, principals, advisory committees and employee bargaining units. The reduction options would then be presented to the public for input and board consideration.
Trustee Emily Prusso expressed approval for beginning the reductions process with “expert” stakeholders.
“I think that the process matters,” Prusso added. “(It’s) important that we’re doing this not just for the outcomes, but also for the trust with our staff and our families and our community.”
The board also unanimously rejected school closures as an option for budget reductions, directing Gibson to remove closures from the list.
“I think it’d bring healing to the community and to the families that were startled when they saw that on the reduction list,” Trustee Deena Kaplanis said.
Gibson later defended the process for creating the options list that the board tabled just one week prior.
“Everything that’s on the list that we provided last Tuesday went through the process that you have all been talking about for the last half an hour or longer,” Gibson said.
Items on the options list were requested by stakeholders, board members and union leadership, Gibson said. The community budget committee also provided input of their priorities, she added.
On the subject of school closures, at least one trustee requested that item as a reduction option, Gibson said.
“Those of you who did (request), should probably own that,” she added.
My direction was to give every option, Gibson explained, and the plan at last week’s meeting was to review the options and their associated impacts.
In addition to the board’s direction on the budget reduction process, they requested that Gibson email the community about said process.
The board also requested that a page on the district website provide information on the reduction process, something Gibson said has already been created and is poised for launch.
Additionally, the board directed district officials to freeze non-essential encumbrances in addition to the freezing of non-essential hiring, which Gibson said is ongoing.
Ahead of the Feb. 10 regular meeting, Drouin aims to schedule two more special meetings about budget reductions. As of Monday morning (Jan. 26), meeting dates had not yet been announced.
Also during last Tuesday’s meeting, the board voted unanimously to approve an agreement with corporation Dannis Woliver Kelley for legal consultation independent of district officials.
Under the agreement, Dannis Woliver Kelley is set to represent, advise, and counsel the board from Jan. 15, 2026 through June 30, 2028.
The board has previously had at least two lawyers and we have questions, Drouin explained. No details on the board’s questions were provided during the meeting.
