California’s largest school district has enacted a hiring freeze for some positions and is considering closing or merging some school campuses in anticipation of the loss of federal pandemic funding and declining enrollment, according to district officials.
He said the district has spent the past two years “reorganizing” positions to streamline school support services, which has saved the district millions.
However, he warned that the district “is not out of the woods yet” financially.
The jobs of about 1,800 staff members—including teachers and counselors—were funded by one-time federal funds and may not be replaced once they leave the district.
However, Mr. Carvalho said “strategically essential positions” will be kept.
“We need to ask the question: is the need still there and is this the right position?” he said.
Of potential campus closures or mergers, Mr. Carvalho also said that “it certainly is a tool in the toolbox. But it’s one that is used as a measure of last resort, and we are nowhere near that point.”
More than $190 billion in federal pandemic funds for public schools across the nation will expire next year. Los Angeles Unified received about $5 billion in such funding last year.
Mr. Carvalho has warned the district since he took office in February 2022 to expect a sharp financial transition when such funding runs dry.
A one-percent decline in enrollment can result in a loss of approximately $55 million in funding for the upcoming school year, according to the budget report.
The district’s enrollment fell from 639,337 in the 2015–16 academic year to 538,295 in 2022–23, a nearly 16 percent drop, or loss of about 100,000 students, according to California Department of Education data.
