Dear Team GUSD:

In an effort to provide you with information about the status of negotiations with the Gilroy Teachers Association (GTA), the District negotiations team will share brief updates regarding specific components of the current GUSD proposal.

Sharing this information with all staff will allow you to be informed about the proposal that the District’s negotiations team has presented to GTA leadership.  

The sixth update addresses the composition of the GUSD reserve:

What makes up the GUSD reserve? 

While the current GUSD reserve is $21.9 million, the District’s reserve is comprised of separate buckets of funding.  The state requires a 3% reserve for economic uncertainty, and the Gilroy Unified School District’s policy requires a 10% reserve.  To provide context, it is important to note that the required 3% reserve would not be enough to cover the cost of District payroll for a single month.  Of the current 17.22% reserve, in addition to the 10% minimum, 4.97% is already earmarked to be spent on planned reductions.  Finally, the other 2.25% comes from one-time savings.  None of these buckets can be used for ongoing salary increases.

The current reserve can be used to support our students now.  The District’s current proposal includes additional mental health and academic counseling staff through 2025-2026.  The District has also proposed to increase the number of Literacy Facilitators at each elementary school to focus on building early literacy skills in grades K-3.  These positions will be funded by strategically using one-time funds over the next 2-3 years.

We welcome the opportunity to continue our conversations with GTA with the hope that we can reach an agreement that benefits our staff members and maintains the fiscal solvency of District operations.

Anisha Munshi, Ed.D.
Superintendent
Gilroy Unified School District