In the face of a $2 million budget shortfall, Coronado Unified School District trustees have vowed to make up the deficit with funding cuts and revenue increases. But they won’t say how all of that is going to happen until this fall.
At the last regular school board meeting on June 18, Coronado Unified trustees adopted a revised 2025-26 budget along with a resolution that, according to Deputy Superintendent Donnie Salamanca, commits to reduce expenditures or add financing sources to cover the shortfall in order to maintain a 3% reserve required by the county.
Salamanca told the board that the district’s 2025-26 First Interim Report in December will present budget solutions as requested in a letter by the San Diego County Office of Education.
This budget shortfall comes as CUSD struggles with declining student enrollment and moves toward becoming a Basic Aid school district, or becoming funded through property taxes.
Salamanca said 2,750 students were enrolled in the 2024-25 school year. In the 2025-26 school year, the district projects 2,700 students and 100 less in each of two subsequent years.
According to Salamanca, current interdistrict transfer student applications have significantly dropped.
In the budget’s multi-year projections, Salamanca said CUSD only has $300,000 of approximately $1.7 million needed in the 2026-27 reserves.
At the meeting, district art teachers expressed concerns about art programs having enough staffing amid budget decisions.
The teachers, who addressed the board about one Coronado School of the Arts teacher being reassigned to a different position, also addressed interdistrict transfer students and salaries.
“For many, the arts are where they find their voice, their community, and their hope,” Karrie Jackson, a graduate and teacher, told the board during a pending reassignment. “So, I just ask that, please, when you have to make any difficult decisions in the budgets, just consider the ripple effects on mental health, on systems of operations, on school culture, and on our children’s future. The arts are not extra. They’re definitely essential.”
Amid budget solutions and concerns, amendments to Salamanca’s and Mueller’s employment contracts were extended through June 30, 2029, but approved 2.5% salary increases were deferred until July 1, 2027.
Mueller said once CUSD is in Basic Aid, the district will not be receiving any revenue for interdistrict transfer students.
“We’re in declining enrollment, and for years, we sustained our enrollment by bringing in interdistrict transfer students because we needed that revenue to sustain the programs that we offer to our students,” said Mueller. “I do not want anyone in the room, governing board included, to assume that once we reach basic aid, we will not be accepting [interdistrict transfer students]. We will.”
Mueller also noted that the district is focused on reducing the number of employees and said it has not looked to fill positions following staff resigning or retiring from CUSD.
“The Coronado School of the Arts is an amazing four year program for our high school students,” said Mueller. “We’re not getting rid of our pathway programs. We’re just making difficult yet strategic decisions about ‘How can we maximize our staffing resources to get us to basic aid without compromising our commitment to K-12 pathways in visual and performing arts and world language?’
“We’re going to have a lot more information by the time the board actually identifies reductions in December,” added Salamanca.
In a separate matter, trustees expanded a policy allowing each grade at Coronado High School to leave campus during lunch beginning in the fall. The board voted 5-0 to extend the privilege to freshmen.
The next regular board meeting is set for 4 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 21, at the district office.
