Justice Ontiveros paused and took a deep breath before finishing her remarks.
Standing at the podium on Feb. 24, the fourth grader from Kermit King Elementary told the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District (PRJUSD) board of directors about navigating “big feelings” and the adults at her school who help when emotions become overwhelming.
“Shannon, the behavior helper, has helped me during tough times and friendship problems,” Justice said. “She has also helped me with some of my friends when they have really big feelings. When she helps them calm down, it makes the whole classroom feel better and safer.”
Justice spoke as district leaders consider cutting more than 25 positions—including teachers and all district-funded elementary school counselors—as part of an effort to close a $3.9 million structural budget deficit for the 2026-27 school year.
Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Brad Pawlowski told trustees the proposed reductions are the result of long-term financial pressures affecting school districts across California.
“School districts receive base funding from the state of California to operate schools and provide educational services to students,” Pawlowski said. “That funding supports classroom instruction, student services, campus maintenance, safety programs, and many operations required to keep the school running on a daily basis.”
But, he said, the cost of operating schools has increased faster than state funding. Employee health benefits, state-required retirement contributions, utilities, insurance, and specialized services for students with additional needs continue to rise.
“The larger challenge that’s facing districts today is really twofold,” Pawlowski said. “First, it’s continued declining enrollment. Fewer students equates to lower funding. And the second one is the growing gap between baseline funding and the actual cost of providing the level of education and support our students and community expect, while at the same time trying to maintain competitive wages.”
The district’s general fund deficit is $3.9 million in the next fiscal year, with projected deficits of $2.1 million and $1.4 million in the following two fiscal years, respectively, if no corrective action is taken. To address the shortfall, district staff proposed reducing $2.75 million in expenses, largely through staffing reductions and restructuring. The plan includes eliminating supplemental positions funded through the general fund.
“We are bound by ed code to make these decisions in February and March for the following school year,” Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Shauna Ames told trustees. “When I’m speaking tonight, it’s not immediate. It’s for the following school year.
“These decisions are based on structure and funding, not individuals, not their performance, not whether they’re doing a great job or not,” she said. “Because our employees do an amazing job.
“One of our hardest reductions this year is to the counseling team,” Ames said. “We are not willing and we’re not going to pull all of our social-emotional support from our students.”
If the proposed cuts move forward, Ames said wellness rooms would remain at all school sites, every elementary school would continue to have a full-time school psychologist, and teachers and student engagement specialists would continue delivering social-emotional learning lessons. Schools could also use site-level Title I funds to pay for counselors or share them between campuses.
School districts across California are grappling with similar financial pressures.
“Several large districts around the state are having to lay off staff members because of declining enrollment and reduced funding from the state,” Pawlowski said. “So what we’re facing here is also being faced by districts up and down California. It’s not a Paso Robles problem.”
In a Feb. 2 open letter, superintendents from eight California school districts called on the state to restructure how it funds schools.
“When nearly every school system in California is facing the same challenges, it is clear that the issue is not isolated decision-making, but the sustainability of the funding model itself,” the letter stated.
Local concern was evident at the Feb. 24 board meeting, where parents, students, staff, and community members filled the boardroom to speak during public comment.
Joey Ontiveros, Justice’s younger brother and also a student at Kermit King, stood on a stool to reach the microphone.
“I see my friends struggle with big feelings and after they talk to Shannon, the behavior helper, they feel better,” Joey said. “It helps the whole class calm down. Our counselor is always kind to kids and helps them feel safe. If they are gone, I think it will be harder for kids and teachers. Please keep them at our school.”
Their mother, Candice Ontiveros, told trustees that counseling and behavioral health positions are essential supports.
“Our behavioral health team have been a stabilizing force on our campus,” she said. “They support students who struggle with emotion regulation and behavioral challenges. They step in during classroom crisis and help children learn coping skills instead of being labeled as problems.”
She added that many families cannot afford private therapy and rely on school counselors for mental health care.
“Our teachers are educators,” Ontiveros said. “They cannot also be full-time therapists and crisis specialists. Prevention costs less than crisis. These positions are foundational.”
High school counselors echoed those concerns, pointing to the role counseling services play in student safety and equity.
Megen Guffey, a counselor at Paso Robles High School, said “elementary data” shows that counselors have conducted 50 suicide risk interventions and 29 self-harm interventions so far this school year.
“These are not abstract figures,” Guffey said. “These are 79 instances when a child’s life or physical safety was at immediate risk.”
Guffey also cited academic gains for English learner students at the high school, where the graduation rate for English learners increased from 67 percent in 2023 to 83 percent in 2025, which she said was due in part to dedicated counseling support.
Lindsay Soto, another Paso Robles High School counselor and a parent, warned that eliminating the international counselor position would disproportionately affect immigrant and marginalized students.
“The single counselor at Paso High that has been identified to be eliminated is the international counselor who serves students identified as learning English as a second language,” Soto said. “Students and families should have access to a counselor who speaks their native language and understands how to support students who are new to the country or long-term English learners. This is an intentional disregard for equity.”
Superintendent Jennifer Loftus said the recommendations reflect more than a year of feedback from parents, students, staff, trustees, and county and state officials.
“These recommendations aren’t created from work that’s done within a bubble,” Loftus said. “We’re trying to be hard on the issue but as soft as possible on the people. We did get very used to having a lot of supports that we cannot continue to sustain with the funding we have now. And it is hard.”
The board took no action at the meeting. Trustees are expected to continue discussions on March 10. ∆
Reach Staff Writer Chloë Hodge at chodge@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in March 5-12, 2026.
When the average special needs student is receiving an average of $27,000 in funding of educational services a year in funding, and the average general education student only receives $10,000, something is completely broken in our system. I spent three decades working in behavioral health with rep students. It makes no sense to spend almost three times the amount of money on students who will most likely continue to cost taxpayers an exorbitant amount of money and never be able to contribute to funding the system through taxes, while failing to spend enough to give the future contributing members of society a proper education and job skills that will prepare them to be come contributing members of society. It is common sense. And this is why our public schools went from being the best in the US to the worst. We are catering to the demands of a few and ignoring the needs of the many. Collapse is imminent.