San Rafael school district reverses $470K in budget cuts

An influx of new elementary-level enrollment and other developments have provided some fiscal relief.

San Rafael City Schools will restore close to $470,000 in programs and stipends that had been slated for elimination or reduction.

“Based off the community feedback shared over the past few months, I am happy to let you know that the board is supporting steps to scale back the reductions,” Superintendent Carmen Diaz Ghysels said in a public letter on Friday.

In February, the district board approved a list of $5.85 million in budget reductions for 2024-25. At the time, officials said the list was tentative until the final budget is approved in June.

Since then, a new influx of student enrollment in the elementary schools has increased revenue projections, along with a higher-than-expected amount of interest income booked for the district in the Marin County treasury, Ghysels said.

In addition, Ghysels said, there was a decrease in the amount the district must pay into its special education fund for the elementary school division.

“I am relieved to share that projections have moderately improved,” Ghysels said.

The extra revenue will allow the district to restore a $397,295 contract with the National Academy of Athletics to teach physical education classes to children from transitional kindergarten through fifth grade. The contract had been among a group of professional contracts slated to be axed.

Without the teachers and curriculum provided by the National Academy of Athletics, the elementary division, which has no regular physical education teachers, would have had to require classroom teachers to teach physical education, said Christina Perrino, a district spokesperson.

“This was something that came up during our community engagement process that both parents and teachers voiced support of,” said Perrino, referring to the supplemental physical education contract.

The district also is getting almost $70,000 in grant funding from the Tobacco-Use Prevention Education Fund and from the HeadsUp district foundation to support stipends for mental health trainees and associates at Terra Linda and San Rafael high schools.

“The community told us that mental health was one of their top priorities,” Perrino said.

The trainees and associates are master’s-degree-level students at area universities who are accumulating service hours toward a licensed clinical social worker or marriage and family counselor license.

The 10-month trainee internships are part time on a rotating schedule for one to three days per week, depending on the college class schedules, Perrino said.

The district had planned to eliminate the $35,000 stipend for each of the two trainee positions. Instead, the stipend will be reduced to a maximum of $7,500 each, said Susan Akram, director of student services.

“These trainees require a significant amount of supervision by a wellness coach,” she said. Their stipends will be paid by the Tobacco-Use Prevention Education grant through the Marin County Office of Education.

Also at the high schools, stipends for each of two mental health associates were slated to be reduced, but will now be kept in place, as they were before, through the district’s general fund, Akram said. The associates, who require less supervision than the trainees, will continue to be paid a $45,000 stipend each for 10-month jobs at five days per week.

In addition, a $54,000 grant from the district’s HeadsUp foundation will fund stipends for two additional part-time mental health associates to work at the high schools.

“This means that overall, we are increasing our staffing at our wellness centers,” Perrino said. “We are very grateful to HeadsUp for their support to make this happen.”

Perrino said the grant funding is helping with the trainee stipends so there’s no impact to the budget. Then, for the associates’ stipends, the district is contributing, plus the HeadsUp grant.

“Overall it’s very good news,” Perrino said. “We’re happy to share it.”