The MBUSD Board of Education holds its next regular meeting at 5 p.m. Wednesday, July 15, at 325 S. Peck Avenue. It is the board's first regular session since adopting a 2026-27 budget built on deep staffing cuts at a special meeting Thursday, June 18.

That budget projects a small surplus for the coming year, a sharp reversal from the $6.28 million deficit the district faced in 2026-27 without reductions, according to MBUSD's Second Interim budget report released in March 2026.

The turnaround came at a cost. At its Wednesday, March 11 meeting, the board authorized the possible elimination of 58.85 full-time equivalent positions: 40.4 certificated, 15.45 classified, and 3 management. Board Vice President Jen Dohner called the reductions painful.

"We are not trimming fat. We are trimming muscle. There's no fat left," Dohner said during the March deliberations.

Why the surplus doesn't end the crisis

Deputy Superintendent Dawnalyn Murakawa-Leopard has repeatedly warned that MBUSD faces a structural deficit. The district has run deficits in all but one of the past eight years, that exception being a surplus under $80,000, with temporary pandemic-era relief funding masking the gap in other years.

MBUSD receives $11,657 per student in Local Control Funding Formula dollars, $2,764 less than the state median of $14,421, according to district budget documents. Only 7.09 percent of MBUSD students qualify as English learners, foster youth, or low-income, limiting the supplemental funding the state provides.

Meanwhile, mandatory special education contributions have grown $7.3 million over the past decade to nearly $20 million annually. Three-fourths of the district's budget goes to salary and benefits, Murakawa-Leopard told the Daily Breeze in March 2026.

Standard & Poor's downgraded the district's credit rating from AA to AA- in February 2026, citing projected reserve drawdowns.

Revenue options remain limited

Polling conducted by FM3 Research in February 2026 found that a proposed $216-per-parcel tax drew only 48 percent support among 509 likely Manhattan Beach voters, well short of the two-thirds threshold needed to pass. That means the Manhattan Beach Education Foundation's $7.1 million annual contribution and the existing Measure MB parcel tax ($2.5 million per year) remain the district's primary supplemental revenue sources.

What's not yet known

The July 15 agenda had not been posted as of Sunday, July 6. The board has a 44-day window after the state approves its own budget to revise district spending, according to Murakawa-Leopard, so budget amendments could surface at this meeting or later.

How to participate

The Wednesday, July 15 meeting begins at 5 p.m. at the MBUSD District Office, 325 S. Peck Avenue, Manhattan Beach. The board accepts public comment at the start of regular meetings. The first PTA Council meeting of the 2026-27 school year is scheduled for Thursday, August 27, at the district office.