Santa Rosa City Schools has turned to Sonoma County for help shoring up its troubled budget, asking for $5 million in special, voter-approved tax funds to maintain the district’s mental health programs.

The money being sought would come from Measure O, the countywide quarter-cent sales tax passed in 2020 to support mental health and homelessness programs.

The district is asking for enough to support its existing programs focused on student wellbeing for the current and next two academic years. The district’s annual operating costs for its mental health services hover around $2 million.

Interim Superintendent Lisa August first put the request in writing to the county’s health services director, Nolan Sullivan, on Nov. 14.

“We urge the Sonoma County Department of Health Services to consider this request with the utmost urgency to secure the uninterrupted mental health and wellbeing of the youth in our community,” August wrote.

Discussions between the two entities began shortly after August’s letter. While using Measure O funding could be a “technical possibility,” Sullivan said in late December, much of the money is already allocated to existing programs.

Annual revenue is about $32 million, with certain shares dedicated to homelessness, mental health and affordable housing. Recipients must apply for the money, and vetted applications are weighed by the Board of Supervisors.

Funds are currently used at K-12 public campuses for the county’s Crisis Assessment, Prevention, and Education (CAPE) program and to support mental health resources at Santa Rosa Junior College.

“There are several challenges associated with this request,” Sullivan said on Dec. 23.

“The projected Measure O fund balance at the end of the measure in 2029 is under $2 million, leaving limited flexibility for new investments or costs,” he said. “In addition to the fund balance issue, there is no clear mechanism to transfer funds to another entity outside of a competitive process.”

He added that the county may be able to work with its behavioral and community health partners, like hospital systems and managed care plans, to explore pooling resources.

At stake, district leaders say, are resources that were first introduced in the aftermath of the 2017 wildfires and expanded with one-time funds through the pandemic, which widened learning gaps and deepened youth mental health needs.

“Without a county partnership … we face the dismantling of the primary mental health safety net for Santa Rosa’s youth,” said Board President Nick Caston in a Dec. 17 letter to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors. “The consequences of inaction are immediate and severe.”

District leaders are looking for cuts to achieve $3 million savings this school year and must identify by June an additional $23 million in near-term savings, equating to about 9% of the annual budget. If it misses those benchmarks, the district could be forced to take an emergency loan from the state, effectively losing local control.

Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, the board’s outgoing chair, said county officials remained in the early stages of talks with their Santa Rosa City Schools counterparts. She affirmed a shared belief between the two local governments in preserving youth mental health resources.

“In Sonoma County, our youth are facing unprecedented mental health challenges – we’ve seen the data after the wildfires, after the pandemic and there is a growing body of evidence to suggest social media also places a substantial role in youth and adolescent mental health challenges,” Hopkins said. “Its critical that we serve this high at-risk population.”

Santa Rosa City Schools provides mental health services across its 19 campuses, including drop-in wellness centers at its secondary schools, professional development for staff in recognizing student need and on-site school-based therapists, who are available to students in all grades.

Many of those staff members were brought in to the district after it received one-time funding from the state, specifically targeted to address student mental health needs. That money has since run out.

“The one-time funds from COVID and the fires established the ability for the school board to establish and provide programs that were really in the county and other agencies’ control,” Caston said. “But now that those funds are expiring, we need the county and agencies to step in.”

At the last regular board meeting of the year on Dec. 9, district leaders identified restorative specialists and school-based therapists as the next round of staff on the chopping block. The update came in a report outlining the cuts necessary to keep the district from falling into state receivership.

The next wave of layoffs will come in the wake of the 150 teachers and staff let go at the end of the 2024-25 school year, and amid a historic restructuring that will have closed at least six elementary and middle school campuses by this coming June.

District discussions on layoffs will start in the new year, with signs pointing to an even larger number of pink slips going out to teachers and staff this spring.

The district’s mental health professionals crowded the Dec. 9 board meeting, speaking to the importance of their jobs and the impact on wellbeing for students.

“Preventative, responsive and consistent mental health and wellness services are not extras – they’re the foundation that allow students to access learning at all,” said Montgomery High School-based therapist Elizabeth Smith. “If we cut these supports, students will not simply ‘find help elsewhere.’”

Without outside funding, however, the board will have to make deep cuts to the district’s mental health support programs, equating to about a 75% reduction in associated jobs.

As is, the district is facing broader cuts that will likely touch all campuses, hundreds of staff, academic and enrichment programs. The district must keep student learning at the forefront, Caston added, leaving trustees to pick up savings where they can in cuts to support services.

“School campuses are the best place to access our community and for our community to access these types of resources, but just because we are the best place for access, doesn’t mean we can or should be diverting education dollars to provide them,” he said.

A new initiative under the California Department of Health Care Services now allows school districts to bill private insurers for mental health services, reducing costs coming from the district’s general fund. The rollout of that initiative is still in the early stages.

“We are facing budget crises in government across the board,” Hopkins said. “I think that makes it more important than ever to really try to figure out how to work closely to preserve essential resources – I think our mental health resources are particularly at risk.”

Report For America corps member Adriana Gutierrez covers education and child welfare issues for The Press Democrat. You can reach her at Adriana.Gutierrez@pressdemocrat.com.