Vallejo school district emerges from state control after 20 years

VALLEJO – The Vallejo City Unified School District announced Monday that the district is exiting state receivership after over 20 years and is now free to operate without oversight. 

“The state and county have returned authority to Vallejo,” Superintendent Rubén Aurelio said at a press conference outside the district offices on Mare Island. “We accept that responsibility with humility, clarity and focus.”

The district held the press conference with a crowd of over 50 people, including current and former Vallejo school board members, staff members, students, and city and county officials.

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond praised the district for working itself out of a difficult situation.

“Many times people want to say negative things about our communities that serve kids of color, low income kids and people just fighting to make a difference,” Thurmond said. “Today is a day where we can celebrate what we already know, that this is a district that believes in high quality education that every student deserves.”

The district initially entered into state receivership due a fiscal crisis in the early 2000s, when leadership overestimated enrollment and underestimated salary expenses. In response, the school board made deep cuts that included eliminating elementary school music teachers, middle school counselors and librarians, and closing Mare Island Elementary School. 

Despite the cuts, the district still almost went bankrupt. In 2004, the state offered a $60 million dollar loan to allow it to remain operational and the district had little choice but to accept it, despite that it came with strings attached.

The loan terms included a total loss of the district’s ability to govern itself. From 2004 to 2007, virtually all of Vallejo’s school board’s powers were in the hands of State Administrator Richard Damelio. In 2008, the district regained some local control, but Damelio still had control over its fiscal matters until April 2013. 

Under Damelio, the district closed Farragut and Davidson Elementary School, Hogan High School, and Vallejo Middle School.

After Damelio’s role overseeing the district ended, the Solano County Office of Education appointed Melvin Iizuka as a fiscal advisor who oversaw the district until his contract ended Monday. While Iizuka had less power than Damelio, he still had the power to stop school board actions related to finances.

“I had the authority of stay and rescind over any board action that would not be consistent with the financial recovery of the district,” Iizuka said in an email. But he said he “never had to exercise this authority.”

During Iizuka’s tenure, the district had to turn in a yearly financial report until it paid off its debt to the state. As required by state law, the report had to include actions taken to reduce expenditures or increase income, a copy of the budget, and all employee contracts. The district paid off the full $68.5 million last September after making yearly payments for 20 years.

But the district  remains in a challenging financial situation. From 2004 to this past school year, the district lost about half its enrollment, dropping from around 18,000 students to about 9,500. The district relies on money that is based on enrollment for the majority of its funding, so it’s lost funding as enrollment has declined. In a press release last year, the district attributed the trend towards “rising housing costs, smaller family sizes, and increased educational options.”

Since 2019, the district has closed or merged schools to cut costs. In 2019, the district merged Elsa Widenmann Elementary and Solano Middle School into Solano Widenmann Leadership Academy. In 2020, the board closed Beverly Hills Elementary and Franklin Middle School.

In addition to closing schools to reduce costs, the district has also sold property to generate revenue. It sold little league baseball fields to a residential developer for $8.2 million in 2022 and sold the shuttered Beverly Hills Elementary site to Solano County for $2.8 million in 2023.

Aurelio began serving as VCUSD’s superintendent last summer. He has encouraged the school board to make cuts and close and consolidate schools in order to help the district remain fiscally solvent.

In an interview, Aurelio said he is trying to correctly size the district while not making unnecessary cuts.“For us, it’s a combination of making sure we have the right number of schools for the population we’re serving,” Aurelio said, “and, at the same time, not limiting ourselves. Because the hope is there’s going to be growth."

Last November, a district committee recommended further school closures while Iizuka pushed for more cuts.

“You need to take action,” Iizuka said during a presentation to the school board in December. “None of you all were elected to cut schools or cut expenses. You were elected to provide a better education. But part of that responsibility is for the district to be fiscally solvent.”

Iizuka said at the time that if the district couldn’t improve its financial status it could face more oversight from the state. 

In February, Vallejo’s school board voted to close Mare Island Health and Fitness Academy and Loma Vista Environmental Science Academy and cut 75 staff positions. The school closures exceeded what the district committee had recommended. After the vote, Iizuka praised Aurelio in an email obtained by the Vallejo Sun.

“Congratulations on working through the budget reductions and school closure issue,” Iizuka said. “Difficult decision but the board made the correct move.”

The district is again in the process of considering closures. A district committee began meeting this month to make recommendations about school closures and consolidations that could affect Federal Terrace, Pennycook, Highland, Cooper, Stephan Manor, and Lincoln Elementary schools. Aurelio told the Vallejo Sun that the district is not planning on closing all of these schools, but that he couldn’t say how many might close.

Aurlelio said that the district and school board are ultimately trying to find “$15.5 million in combined reductions or revenue enhancements for the 2026–27 school year,” and that they plan to “make a decision on all closures and cuts by December.”

The committee is also considering whether or not to sell the John Finney Education Complex, which hosts small schools for students who face academic challenges, special education students, and other students in unique circumstances that prevent them from attending a traditional school. Aurelio called these programs “essential to VCUSD’s broader equity and inclusion strategy” and told the Vallejo Sun that the complex’s closure would not end them.

“If the Finney site were to close, the district is committed to ensuring these programs continue to serve students,” Aurelio said. “We would relocate the programs to other facilities within the district to ensure students continue to receive the support they need.”

Having gained independence from state oversight, Aurelio expressed optimism about the district’s future.

“Think VCUSD first when you look for innovation, for strong programs, for schools where every child belongs,” Aurelio said during Monday’s press conference. “Think VCUSD first when you talk to your neighbors, your friends, your family about where the future is being built. Because that future is right here.”