Dos Pueblos High School students and staff, joined by other high school students and staff, spoke out against the Santa Barbara Unified School Board’s approval of the “Reduction in Forces” (RIF) lay-off notices. The proposed reduction would impact six DPHS departments, with 13 DPHS teachers and counselors receiving a lay-off notice.
The Board meeting on Tuesday opened with Superintendent Hilda Maldonado’s routine invitation for a student performance at the start of the meeting. However, instead of singing, a group of Santa Barbara High School students approached the microphone and stood in silence. One student held a sign that read “If you defund the arts, there won’t be any” as the background music played for almost four minutes.
The district sent out more than 40 RIF notices towards SBUSD employees. All confirmed lay-offs will be announced before May 15, but Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources, John Becchio, said in an email that the district has already “begun sending letters to inform employees that they will have a position” for the 2025-2026 school year.
“Districts have to issue precautionary Reduction in Force notices,” Becchio said via an email. “This is not due to ‘bad planning’ but rather a commitment to meeting the state’s Ed Code requirements, while also holding true to accurately creating the staffing and master schedules that students need for the coming school year.”
The Board initially approved of the lay-off notices at the March 11 meeting; since then, several DPHS students and employees have made their opinions on the RIF notices known.
DPHS International Baccalaureate Diploma candidate Frieda Streichan (11) spoke during the public comment section of the Board meeting and voiced her “disagreement with the current solutions” for the district’s proposed budget cuts.
“Teachers are incredibly important to the development of students all across the world, [and] they are the ones in the classroom,” Streichan said. “They’re the ones educating the students. They’re the ones that are shaping our future. [Teachers] should not be getting cut, and … there are so many teachers that are lower on the seniority ranking that are so incredibly important to programs across the district.”
Streichan pointed out that the English department at DPHS would be impacted and, with IB English Teacher Katie Dwyer receiving a lay-off notice, the IB program would be affected by the RIF notices.
“I propose that the [budget] cuts are made at a level that is not in the classroom, like in the district level, the admin level, the manager levels, jobs that are making more pay than teachers,” Streichan said to the Board. “I want you to know that this is not fair. I want there to be other solutions.”
Dwyer has been working at DPHS for more than eight years, but she stopped teaching in 2020 during the COVID-19 quarantine to focus on raising her two young children. Among the others from DPHS to speak during the Board meeting, Dwyer spoke out on how the “lack of careful planning” by the Board has impacted her personally.
“I have shown up to class every day to model to students what kindness looks like, what it means to treat others with dignity and respect,” Dwyer said. “I have outsourced the care of my own children to others so that I can take care of the high school students in my classroom. That RIF notice might not feel personal to you, but to me, to my family, to my students, and to my colleagues, it feels pretty personal.”
DPHS IB Diploma candidate Ila Walman-Randall (11) spoke during the Board meeting as well and shared her point of view on the lay-off notices.
“SBUSD values the importance of having teachers that students can feel safe with and comfortable with,” Walman-Randall said. “Strong important connections are formed between teacher and student, making DPHS a safe school for all. The loss of those connections will be felt drastically.”
Walman-Randall said her past DPHS Advanced Placement Chemistry Teacher, Alissa Mullin, “may lose her job due to the lay-off notices.”
“I don’t know any student that feels Mullin does not give her all to help us
learn, making a positive impact on everyone that enters her classroom,” Walman-Randall said. “She keeps her classroom open for hours after school to answer questions and provide support and shares her room for the chemistry club that I am a part of.”
Walman-Randall said she felt Mullin is a trusted adult on the DPHS campus.
“Strong student connections are rare, and with the lay-off of Mullin comes the loss of a staff,” Walman-Randall said. “Santa Barbara Unified community lay-offs based on seniority do not fairly account for the dedication and perspective that new teachers bring to the school atmosphere. I hope this is taken into consideration and further decision making.”
