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As the Mountain View Whisman School District struggles with a budget that’s projected to shrink in the years to come, administrators are asking the school board to consider what it wants to prioritize, taking into account the cost of running small schools.
During the Oct. 22 board meeting, Superintendent Jeffrey Baier discussed the district’s budget and asked the school board for input on the direction it would like to take as it considers upcoming budget cuts. In September, staff suggested trimming roughly $8 million from its budget.
The anticipated cuts come as the district – which is funded primarily by property taxes – grapples with increasing costs and slowing property tax growth. Roughly 90% of the district’s revenue comes from local sources, largely made up of local property taxes. Those are calculated based on assessed property values, and for the last few years, growth has slowed.
Assessed property value growth was only 1.58% this year, Baier said, which is roughly .20% less than was projected. The district’s 2026-27 school year budget is operating at a deficit of $9 million, and that doesn’t include staff raises.
“In order to cover what I call the natural growth – that is employees moving on the salary schedule, that is the cost of trash collection increasing, lights, PG&E becoming more expensive – we need 5% of (assessed valuation) growth,” Baier said.
The cuts are expected to support ongoing costs, including the capacity for salary increases, he said. But the budget’s adjustment process isn’t going to be fixed in one go.
“Getting from today to this sustainable situation may take multiple years,” he said.
While Baier explicitly said the district isn’t recommending closing schools, he said it’s important that the district explore cuts while taking into consideration the number of employees at smaller schools. That means they’ll need to discern which student-facing employees can be let go.
Historically, the district aimed to have a target of no more than 450 students at a school – but Baier said that number has changed, as has the cost of operating schools that are of that size and smaller.
“We have nine schools that average about 350 students per school, right? And that’s everywhere from 250 to 455 in our range,” Baier said. “But there’s a cost to that, right? There’s a cost to a principal, a secretary, librarian, all of those support positions.”
This is the second budget-cutting process the district has navigated in the last year. In January, the district trimmed approximately $7.4 million from its budget for the 2026-2027 school year. Baier said district officials knew there would be more cuts to come.
Unlike the reductions that the district approved in January – which cut 20 employees in the district office, nightly custodial services and individual computers for younger students – administrators have emphasized a school-by-school analysis and approach this time.
Baier said administrators have touched base with principals to explain how to identify their school’s needs, and budget-cut packages should be presented at the Nov. 19 meeting.
