BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
Palo Alto’s new superintendent is hiring an outside auditor to verify that the board needs to make $33 million in cuts next year, but the auditor won’t recommend positions or programs for the chopping block.
“There are questions around the district’s projections, estimates, budgeting process,” Superintendent Jason Glass said on Tuesday. “We’re committed to as many reviews of this as possible so that we get to a place where everybody has faith and confidence in the numbers that we’re talking about.”
The audit comes after candidate Avery Wang criticized the district for spending $563,414 on a math skip test and $56,599 on two sushi machines.
“I’m convinced there’s a lot of waste,” Wang said in an interview last week.
But the audit isn’t about what positions or programs the district should consider eliminating, Glass said.
“That really is work that needs to happen here in this community,” he told the board.
The board is facing a $33 million budget deficit in the 2026-27 school year and a $10 million deficit in the 2027-28 school year.
Raises for employees
The projected deficit comes after the board gave 10.4% raises and $10,000 in bonuses to both unions on June 16.
During negotiations, the unions said the district should spend down over $100 million in reserves. But with the raises, those reserves are now projected to be depleted within the next three years.
Teacher Samuel Howles-Banerji said the district has projected budget deficits that turned out to be overstated by $10 million or more.
“Every year for the past five-plus years, we’ve received a doom-and-gloom budget outlook,” he said at Tuesday’s meeting.
Board member Josh Salcman said he wants the unions to have input on who the auditor is so everyone is on the same page about the district’s current financial situation.
“We have to put an end to the era of competing narratives on this basic issue,” he said.
Glass said he’s hiring School Services of California, a financial consulting company based in Sacramento. The audit should be done next month.
Alarmism called prematue
Union president Tom Culbertson said the district is at the beginning of a months-long discussion about budget cuts.
“Rushing into alarmist rhetoric or declaring immediate crisis is simply premature,” he said.
The deadline to give layoff notices to teachers is March 15.
Salcman and board member Shounak Dharap said they approved the raises to avoid a strike and provide stability for Glass.
The unions never threatened to strike.
But Salcman said the unions and the board disagreed on the district’s financial fundamentals, and teachers had gone on strike in other California districts.
“So this did not seem like a crazy idea that we might end up in a similar situation,” he said.
Dharap said the board is responsible for the raises, not the unions.
“We did it for a good reason. We weighed the choices, and whatever the consequence is, is ours to bear,” Dharap said.
This is a problem for the board. Unless taxpayers vote to bail the district out yet again, they’re going to have to make some tough choices. Sounds good to me.
“Premature”? That’s rich coming from the union that helped push schools into prolonged remote learning during COVID—decisions that left our youngest students paying a lasting price. Parents haven’t forgotten. The union owes this community clear accountability and straight answers: What role did you play in those decisions, what did you get wrong, and what will you do differently now? Parents deserve answers—not dismissals, excuses, or lectures about “alarmist rhetoric.”
Good, finally a little transparency. Problem is an average citizen can find the $3 million dollar lawsuit payout – how many other lawsuits haven’t gotten a settlement or trial date yet? Plus, $1 million to get rid of Don and Trent, $30K to hire a superintendent that was fired 10 months into a 4 year contract from a district that hired the guy you just fired and gave over 650K to leave quietly and then turning around and paying the new guy $400K plus moving and housing expenses. For those out there that haven’t researched this yet, when talking about overpaying public employees please start at the top and consider the base salary for California governor is only $250K – the same salary as PAUSD’s CBO who, by the way, couldn’t answer a basic question from Rowena at the board meeting last week like: assuming 5% property taxes coming in and no parcel tax passing, what percentage should we have offered the unions that would not have put us in the red? If you haven’t watched the video yet, a good time stamp to start is the 2:16:16 mark where she is nervously, and at certain points, profusely nodding directly at Jason to jump in and save her during Rowena’s question. It very a very general question and if she actually did her homework and supposedly knew the numbers, it should’ve been automatic! As an average taxpayer, my guess would have been something like 2.5-3% per year and no $10K payouts. Jason, to outsiders looking in, stumbling in to save your $250K per year CBO was a real bad look and just exposed you are in way over your head but since being here you have promoted the Herb, the guy who negotiated the bad contract deal as your right hand man, while also relying heavily on Charen as a training wheel. Now you may not think about it but the community still remembers these two public employees as important pieces of Don Austin’s crew. These two need to be front and center for this nationwide financial embarrassment and accountability should start with their resignations.
The settlement was actually $3.25 million—the largest in PAUSD history—and it occurred entirely under Superintendent Austin’s watch. It would have been significantly higher if the judge hadn’t played politics and dismissed 90 percent of the claims. Colombo had an excellent case; had those claims stood, he easily would have secured another $10 million. This layout highlights just how egregious PAUSD’s behavior was under Austin’s leadership. Colombo was absolutely railroaded by Austin, the Daubers, and their allies.