Newark Unified School District (NUSD) will be dealing with budget issues over the next several years. After submitting a 2025-2026 Second Interim Budget report, Alameda County Office of Education sent the district a letter with notes.
Superintendent of Alameda County Schools Alysse Castro said the district needs to work on their budget deficit and their declining enrollment problem. The letter stated that over two decades ago the school district had an enrollment high of over 7,000.
The enrollment numbers the past year dropped to around 4,400. The Unrestricted General Fund Balance in 2025-2026 is at $2.7 million, and can drop down to $2.2 million by the end of 2027-2028 after $3.1 million in reductions planned for 2026-2027.
School board member Aiden Hill explained their situation using an example of a family budget. “Just like in your family, if you have a budget, if you have a salary and you spend less than your salary, you can take that money, and you can put it into savings. And then, hopefully, your savings grows and you’ve got a rainy day fund,” he said.
According to the county’s detailed report and analysis of the budget, if the district does nothing to solve their financial problems, it’s possible they will end the 2027-2028 school year with no Reserve for Economic Uncertainties, or “rainy day” fund.
Hill said if you start overspending the family budget something needs to be done to “course correct,” or else you’ll go bankrupt. “In our situation, if we don’t course correct, if we somehow don’t get our expenses underneath our income, then we’re not gonna go bankrupt. We’re gonna get taken over,” he said.
A takeover is when the state handles a school district’s financial or educational policies when the district fails at certain things, like enrollment decline or balancing a budget.
NUSD Superintendent Tracey Vackar said their district is struggling with cutting staffing and other struggling to fill positions. “It’s been both, it’s in the positions, [and] it’s in the positions that we can’t fill, that then we’re paying for with expensive contractors, and those need to be things to really be considered,” she said.
Vackar suggested that the district start another task force in the fall to help solve the budget problem, since the last one wasn’t very effective. “The budget task force might need some more parameters, and that’s something that you might want to think about.”
