Layoff notices will go to more than eight teachers and 24 other employees — including 12 instructional aides and eight counseling department staff members — in the Riverside school district.
The Riverside Unified School District board voted 5-0 Thursday night, Feb. 12, to issue the notices for the 2026-27 school year.
RELATED: Temecula school board OKs over 20 layoff notices
The cuts are being considered because of a lack of funding or need for the positions, a report to the board states.
Each year, administrators in the Riverside district and other California school systems must decide what services they can afford and prepare budgets for the next school year and make staffing decisions ahead of a state-imposed deadline.
Tentative preliminary layoff notices must be approved by March 15. Lists must be finalized by May 15, but by that date districts sometimes rescind all or many of the notices.
Though not finalized, some criticized the proposed layoffs during Thursday’s meeting at the Riverside Adult School.
The district is looking to cut staff members who interact with students every day, said Sandy Roy, a district parent.
“Before you cut any staff who is directly student facing, you should be cutting administration … You should be cutting what is not going to affect the students,” Roy said.
If the staff reductions go through, the jobs of three teachers on special assignment — credentialed teachers who work outside the regular school day — two science teachers, a math teacher, a teacher in charge of independent studies, and a digital media arts teacher could be eliminated for next school year.
Several of the positions are being considered for elimination because of the end of grant money or a lack of enrollment in courses, said Kyley Ybarra, assistant superintendent, department of personnel leadership and development.
Specific positions that could disappear include:
- One bilingual language evaluator
- One budget technician
- Eight guidance technicians
- Twelve instructional assistants in special education
- One instructional program assistant
- One learning management system specialist
The list could change as employees announce retirements or resignations or as state funding changes, Ybarra said.
In 2025, Riverside Unified did not send layoff notices to teachers or other “certificated” employees but handed out notices to 23 non-teaching staff members. The district found alternate placements for 21 of the 23 employees.
The Riverside school board is the latest in the Inland Empire to take such a move.
On Tuesday night, Feb. 10, the Temecula Valley Unified School District board approved layoff notices for more than 20 employees. And, in late January, the Redlands Unified School District board voted 3-2 to send layoff notices to 135 employees.
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