The Mountain View Los Altos Union High School District may develop new offerings in social studies electives to avoid staff cuts accompanying the reduction of its ethnic studies requirement from a year to a single semester.
The board of trustees held a study session on Nov. 17 for the implementation of new ethnic studies graduation requirements, where board members and some of the public called for a plan that would evade layoffs.
“This has generated significant uncertainty and concern within my department and among many MVLA educators,” said Nate Bowen, the department coordinator for social studies at Mountain View High School. “The time for clear decisive leadership is now.”
Superintendent Eric Volta said department heads and educators at individual school sites are developing the potential elective options. The change to ethnic studies – from 10 credits to 5 credits – would not change the district’s graduation requirements, which requires 220 credits. He said the board would review the changes to course offerings at a coming meeting.
“Remember, this policy created some discussion the last time we brought it out. I’m trying to clarify before we bring it back again,” Volta said.
The board of trustees voted 3-2 at a meeting on Oct. 27 to cut the required social studies course, beginning with the 2026-2027 school year. Support for shortening the requirement came from Trustees Vadim Katz, Catherine Vonnegut and Alex Levich. Trustees Esmeralda Ortiz and Thida Cornes cast the dissenting votes.
“As we move into the implementation planning for the decision we made, I think what matters most is proceeding thoughtfully, supporting our students and supporting our staff through that transition,” Levich said.
Ethnic studies is currently a year-long course at the district that teaches students about the study of race, contributions of people of color in the United States and contemporary social movements.
MVLA instituted ethnic studies as a year-long required course for freshmen in 2023 in anticipation of AB 101, a state law which would require the course for graduation. The legislature did not fund the ethnic studies mandate and the district sought to evaluate how the course could be continued as a local mandate.
Candida Diaz, an ethnic studies teacher at Los Altos High School, said, “I urge you to think about the plan moving forward. It is still possible to pair the ethnic studies semester requirement with another social studies elective and to reject any reduction in force.”
Volta said the assignment of classes and master schedule begins in January and is completed in May. He said a report on the first interim budget was also forthcoming, which would give the board a financial gauge for the coming years.
“This is very, very early in the process to give any kind of definitives on how things are going to go,” Volta said.
Vonnegut said the other social studies electives could be of interest or related to ethnic studies.
“Well, I have to say I’m a bit disappointed with ourselves for the way we segmented the decision making to ethnic studies or not separate from the whole social studies requirement,” she said. “It’s turned out to be a little bit of an unintended consequence as far as I’m concerned because now we have a lot of angst and stuff about what we’re going to do with five other credits of students who have to take something or other.”
The district’s 2025-2026 expenditures are more than $146 million. Approximately 39% of that – about $57 million – goes to certificated teacher salaries.
“Teachers are understandably concerned,” Cornes said. “Staffing is the largest part of our budget. I do not want to overspend now to weaken our ability to sustain staffing in the future.”
