Martinez Students Score Above State, County Averages in Assessment Results, but Achievement Gaps Remain; District Budget Woes Continue

Enrollment and attendance challenges, rising costs continue to weigh on district's budget; City approves exclusive negotiating agreement with potential Marina developer

By Gage Walker and Craig Lazzeretti

Director of Educational Services Amy Espinoza presented the 2025 California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress results to the Martinez Unified School District Board of Trustees earlier this month, telling board members that Martinez Unified scored above Contra Costa County and the state in English language arts, math and science.

Espinoza cautioned that achievement gaps remain among certain student groups. She said homeless students fell into the lowest performance category in English language arts, while homeless students and students with disabilities scored in the lowest category in math.

She also pointed to chronic absenteeism as a continuing challenge. Espinoza told the board the district is “sitting at 10.5% chronically absent,” noting higher rates among African American, Filipino, homeless students and students with disabilities.

Board Vice President Anne Horack Martin said the board is very much aligned on “focusing on these areas.”

Chief Business Official Andy Cannon later presented the district’s 2025-26 first interim budget report, which reflects the district’s financial position as of Oct. 31. Cannon described the report as an early indicator of whether the district can meet its financial obligations for the current year and the next two fiscal years.

Cannon said, “We continue to see a decline in enrollment over the next couple of years, and our transitional kindergarten enrollment has now flattened out.”

While overall revenue is projected to increase modestly this year, Cannon said expenditures remain essentially flat and the district plans to deficit spend nearly $2.8 million across its restricted and unrestricted funds.

“Even with cuts of $2 million, we will continue to deficit spend,” Cannon said.

Looking ahead, Cannon warned that even with planned budget reductions, the district is approaching its minimum required reserve level. “We’re looking to see only $206,000 above our (minimum) reserve,” he said. “That means we are dangerously close to falling below our statutory requirement.”

Cannon pointed to expiring state block grants, curriculum adoption costs, and special education expenses as ongoing pressures. “Special education is a program that we absolutely need, and we want to support kids, and it is also very expensive, and not funded by the federal government at the rate at which it was ever intended to be,” he said.

Cannon said improving attendance remains one of the most direct ways to strengthen district finances under California’s attendance-based funding model. “When we calculate our LCFF (Local Control Funding Formula) funds, it’s about $70 a day when a kid is absent,” he said.

Superintendent Gigi Patrick said that fiscal challenges are affecting districts statewide, based on discussion at a recent California School Boards Association conference. “School districts across California are grappling with serious fiscal issues,” she said, adding that declining enrollment and attendance-based funding are central problems.

“We need to continue to look at innovative strategies to promote and help increase attendance. That is where we will see revenue enhancement,” Patrick said. She added, “We need to organize around advocating for public school funding to shift. Because the manner in which we’re doing it is just wrong.”

Earlier in the meeting, the board voted to have Tania Brugger serve another year as board president, with the other board roles also remaining status quo. Typically, the board rotates the president and other officer positions during its annual reorganization in December, but after a tumultuous year that featured the hiring of a new superintendent and a special school board election that left one of the board seats vacant for many months, the board decided to focus on continuity.

Referencing her previous stint as board president, Horack Martin said, “I sort of like the idea of having the consistency for two years. I think you gain a lot of knowledge in your first year, and can really add to the role.”

Trustee Courtney Masella O’Brien also favored keeping the status quo amid recent changes. “I think we have had a lot of change on this board in the past year. We have two very new members, and we have a brand new superintendent.”

Horack Martin will continue as board vice president, with Logan Campbell as board clerk.

In other news…

• As expected, the Martinez City Council unanimously approved an exclusive negotiating agreement (ENA) with Tucker Sadler Architects at last week’s meeting to pursue a potential development project at the Marina. In a social media post announcing the agreement, the city wrote: “With the ENA approval and a formal arrangement in place, the City and Tucker Sadler will embark on the next phase to collaboratively evaluate the project’s feasibility, refine design concepts, and lay the groundwork for decisions on the future of the Waterfront and Marina.” Look for a full article on the meeting and vote in an upcoming newsletter.

• The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors recently received an after-action report from the Contra Costa Fire Protection District on the Feb. 1 fire at PBF Energy’s Martinez refinery. According to Supervisor Shanelle Scales-Preston’s newsletter, the report “reviewed emergency coordination, communication protocols, and identified opportunities to strengthen preparedness and response moving forward.” The report appears to validate criticisms in the wake of the fire that refinery and Contra Costa Health officials erred in not immediately calling a Level 3 shelter-in-place advisory through the Community Warning System. Refinery officials initially activated a Level 2 alert, which means the incident “may have adverse health consequences for sensitive individuals, including those with lung or heart disease, the elderly, or the very young,” and CC Health maintained the Level 2 alert for several hours before upgrading it to Level 3. As the report states on Page 22: “The size and color of the plume, in combination with existing public distrust stemming from prior refinery incidents, led the public to question the accuracy of the initial Level 2 alert and reinforced the public’s existing distrust in subsequent information releases. As stated in the CCH Hazardous Materials Programs Incident Notification Policy, when in doubt, CWS activation levels should always default to the higher level of activation.” Look for a full story on the presentation and report in an upcoming newsletter.

• Supervisor Scales-Preston announced that the Martinez-based Feet First Foundation received a $10,000 Community Impact Fund grant. According to the foundation’s website, the organization seeks to combat absenteeism and enhance mental health for underserved youth through boxing and mentorship.

Social media post of the week

Las Juntas Elementary School got into the holiday spirit last week (the bullpup looks a little concerned about the Grinch’s shenanigans).

Happy holidays

As this will likely be the final post of Martinez News and Views before the Christmas holiday (barring breaking news), I want to take this opportunity to wish all readers and subscribers of the newsletter a happy, peaceful holiday season. I particularly want to acknowledge my paid subscribers and donors who make this newsletter possible, as I would not be able to sustain it without the help of a talented group of freelance writers.

A reminder that paid subscriptions are only $5 per month or $50 annually. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber if not already — or perhaps purchase a gift subscription to someone special for the holidays.

As a further incentive, all paid subscriptions received between now and the end of the year will be matched with a donation to the fundraising campaign for the “Papa Jake” Larson statue being planned on the south side of Plaza Ignacio to honor the beloved resident and World War II D-Day veteran who died earlier this year at age 102.