Educating and empowering students while embracing childhood and adolescence.

Dear MPCSD Community,

Happy New Year! January is a busy month for MPCSD, with important discussions about our financial planning. As you can imagine, this exercise is sensitive and difficult. Given 90% of our expenditures are spent on people, we will not be able to avoid reducing expenditures in this area and all departments will feel these shifts; as a caring community member, you may be concerned about what the outcome will be and how the process is affecting our staff. We are committed to upholding the integrity of the process as we align resources to our vision and strategic directions using the input and research we have collected, including the survey that so many in our community completed. I encourage the community to be and stay engaged, which you can read more about in this newsletter.

We also continue with our Speaker Series and I am so excited to welcome Catherine Price, co-author of the just released book The Amazing Generation, for a live discussion about childhood independence and resilience. This book is already a NYT best seller and I know our community will get a lot out of it. I hope you will join me for this outstanding speaker event on January 21. We are so lucky that Catherine Price is joining us live - she is a big deal! It’s over Zoom so we can log on from the comfort of home. See more below.

We are approaching the new year with renewed energy to tackle challenges and celebrate progress, supporting each other as I know the MPCSD community does. Thank you for valuing your public schools!

Sincerely,

Kristen Gracia

This year MPCSD Superintendent Kristen Gracia is leading the community through a fiscal sustainability exercise, Funding Our Priorities. The goal of this process is to create balanced budgets that reflect our MPCSD vision and priorities. While MPCSD is not facing a budget crisis, it is looking to cut 1-2% of its annual budget over the next three years. MPCSD’s situation is primarily due to these factors:

• Investing in our educators. Our expenses are 90% people. The district, and community as evidenced by recent survey data, is committed to staying competitive when it comes to staff compensation.
• The rising cost of being an employer. Like any household or business, the school district is facing the reality of inflation.
• The impact of the state’s unfunded mandate to offer TK. The targeted reduction in each of the next three years is about the same as the cost of providing TK: $1.2 - $1.5 million each year. While we deeply value early learning, the cost of adding this additional grade level is an example of why MPCSD is challenged to balance our budget year after year.

In the fall of 2025 the process included asking the community for input through our Fiscal Sustainability survey; thank you to the more than 700 families, staff, and community members who shared feedback with us in that survey! The priorities that surfaced through this data provided key input into our cost-savings considerations and the board's discussion.

At the January 15, 2026 school board meeting, Superintendent Gracia presented cost-savings considerations for the next three years. Using guiding principles developed for creating the considerations, 61% of potential cuts are NOT student facing and half of the reductions come directly from the district office, whereas the other half represents reductions at all the school sites combined. Included for consideration were:

• restructuring our Educational Services Department for $1.6M in potential savings;
• right-sizing and reconsidering our enrichment programs in an effort to prioritize classroom learning for $1.3M in potential savings;
• consolidating district and site support for $650K in potential savings;
• right-sizing academic support with a continued emphasis on early intervention for $500K in potential savings;
• and decreasing classroom technology use and support for $400K in potential savings.

Following the presentation and over two dozen public comments, board members discussed:

• Fiscal Responsibility - Discussion emphasized that relying on reserve funds is not a sustainable practice, especially since the district's reserve levels are already below the state benchmark for basic aid school districts. 
• Program Priorities - Board members expressed a strong desire to preserve intervention, music, and library programs, specifically:
• Prioritizing the 5th grade instrumental music program to ensure equity, community building, and the important bridge to middle school it offers, and exploring options to hit savings targets while keeping it.
• Seeking clarity on the year 2 and year 3 considerations including the consideration to restructure and right-size the library program, as well as the reading and math intervention program. As I mentioned at the meeting, we have no intention of eliminating either program. The consideration to restructure is around the idea to right-size the programs based on enrollment and student need at each school. The current one-time funding for math intervention is ending, and plans will be developed to incorporate math support into the ongoing budget, along with reading support.
• Next Steps - Staff will refine the list of cost-savings proposals for the 2026-27 school year and present at the February 12 meeting for the green light. A modified outlook for the following two years will also be provided and discussed.

Tune in to our regularly scheduled board meetings to follow the process, which will culminate this year with the June approval of the 2026-27 adopted budget. You can also visit our Funding Our Priorities webpage to see key dates and all presentations.

In other financial news, the annual district audit by Chavan and Associates was reported as a clean audit with an unmodified report. The audit highlighted the importance for locally funded districts like MPCSD to maintain high reserves due to the dependence on local tax revenue, which can fluctuate. The auditor commended the district business office team for the strong fiscal practices that are in place.

Coming off a successful One Community Campaign (OCC) season, the district's annual fundraiser for our school PTOs and the primary parent fundraiser for the Menlo Park-Atherton Education Foundation (MPAEF), the Foundation turns to gearing up for its spring auction, with the community-wide Schoolhouse Rocks Run & Festival just around the corner!

Sixty-five percent of district families donated to the OCC, and community members can support our schools, too! As MPCSD makes necessary cuts to balance its operating budget, the Foundation's support becomes even more critical. See how you can participate as one of the many Friends of MPAEF.

And save the date for one of the community's beloved traditions: Schoolhouse Rocks 5k, Fun Run & Festival set for May 17, 2026 at Hillview School!