Burbank Resident Questions School Board's Financial Decisions

A Burbank resident is raising pointed questions about how the Burbank Unified School District reached its current financial position, and whether the board responsible for that situation should be trusted to spend new public money.

In a letter published this week, Alexandra Helfrich laid out a detailed critique following the March 5 Burbank Board of Education meeting, where district leadership announced cuts of up to 55 positions for the coming school year. The reductions affect teachers, administrators, instructional aides, and other staff.

According to the Fiscal Stabilization Plan presented by BUSD leadership, the district’s deficit could reach nearly $38 million by spring 2028. That projection signals that the cuts announced this month are likely not the last.

Helfrich acknowledged that BUSD is not operating in isolation. School districts across California are working through similar pressures: declining enrollment, reduced state funding, and difficult tradeoffs between class sizes and program offerings. Physical education and arts programs have taken cuts statewide, and BUSD has faced financial headwinds in the past.

Her argument is not that the challenges are unique. Her argument is that the response has been.

“Previously, there was transparency about financial challenges rather than last-minute surprises,” she wrote. “District leadership engaged stakeholders, bargaining units, parents, and community groups as partners in finding solutions.”

The letter points to specific structural failures as evidence that this time is different. The district’s Fiscal Services department remains understaffed, a condition flagged by the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team back in February 2024. That warning came with an explicit recommendation to fill critical vacancies. More than two years later, according to Helfrich, those gaps have not been addressed.

She also cited legal costs and administrator payouts as concrete examples of financial drain that predated the current budget crunch. Two administrators hired with board support were later terminated, resulting in combined payouts of close to one million dollars. Helfrich put that figure in local terms: roughly two years of the district’s entire elementary PE program.

Scandals and ongoing legal controversies, she argued, have not only cost money directly but have contributed to declining enrollment by eroding confidence in the district. Fewer students means less per-pupil funding, which deepens the deficit, which leads to more cuts. The cycle is self-reinforcing.

The letter’s sharpest turn came in response to a proposal raised at a recent board meeting by Dr. Aghakhanian, who suggested that a voter-approved parcel tax could help close the budget gap.

Helfrich said no.

“I can only speak for myself, but I venture to guess many if not a majority of Burbank voters will share my opinion,” she wrote. “There is no way I can say yes to giving another dollar to THIS Board to manage.”

Her framing is significant. She is not opposed to funding public education. She is opposed to funding this particular board’s management of public education. Whether that distinction resonates broadly with Burbank voters is a question the district will have to reckon with if it pursues a parcel tax measure.

BUSD has historically drawn enrollment from families outside Burbank, including parents from North Hollywood, Glendale, and Los Angeles who sought permits to enroll their children here. That regional reputation was built on a perception of stable, high-quality schools. Helfrich’s letter suggests that reputation is under real pressure.

The district has not responded publicly to the letter. The 55 position reductions announced at the March 5 meeting are set to take effect with the next school year.

Burbank’s broader political community tends to pay close attention to school board dynamics, and a parcel tax campaign would require the district to make an affirmative case to voters who, by some accounts, have grown skeptical. Whether district leadership can rebuild the kind of trust that makes that case possible is a question that will likely define BUSD’s next several budget cycles.

Helfrich closed her letter with a straightforward summary of where she believes things stand: “BUSD is not only facing a fiscal deficit crisis. We are also facing a deficit of oversight. A deficit of transparency. And a critical deficit of trust.”