The Manhattan Beach Education Foundation has awarded $7,636,400 in grants to the Manhattan Beach Unified School District for 2026-27, the largest contribution in its 43-year history. The school board accepted the grants at its April 15 meeting with an outpouring of gratitude that reflected how consequential the money is at this particular moment.
But Hilary Mahan, MBEF’s executive director, had a pointed message for the board, and for the broader community: the Foundation is not finished.
“We are absolutely pleased this year to so far be granting over $7.6 million,” Mahan told the board. “I hope to be able to come back in June and present more funding to you, because we have extended our appeal.”
The extension is urgent. The MBUSD board has authorized over 58 layoffs, but has the ability to rescind some of those pick slips. Every dollar raised has a direct bearing on how many of those positions survive.
“We granted this funding sooner rather than later to impact the final rescissions before they go out at the beginning of May,” Mahan said in an interview last week. “We want that number lower than what was originally projected.”
Board Vice President Jen Dohner, in a separate interview, signaled that the MBEF grant should allow the board to rescind some of the more than 58 pink slips that were authorized in March.
“It looks like we’re going to have an opportunity to make a significant reduction, which now I’m crossing my fingers for,” Dohner said.
At an average salary and benefits cost of approximately $125,000 per full-time employee, the $7.636 million grant equates to roughly 61 positions. But because a $6.5 million contribution from MBEF was already factored into the district’s budget projections, the increase above that baseline is what translates into jobs saved — roughly eight to 10 positions beyond what was already assumed, Mahan said. Part-time roles, including MakerSpace and library specialists, push the actual headcount higher still.
Mahan said she hopes to reach $8 million in fundraising for this year’s drive. Every additional $500,000 raised, she said, saves approximately four to five more positions.
“That’s going to be up to our community,” she said, “and whether or not they hear our message and we’re able to increase participation district-wide.”
The record grant arrives at a time of financial crisis. The MBUSD board, in deliberations that stretched across February and March, authorized the possible reduction of 58.85 full-time equivalent positions for the coming school year — nearly double the 31 reductions approved a year earlier. The structural forces behind the crisis are long-running: California’s Local Control Funding Formula, designed to favor districts serving high-need students, leaves Manhattan Beach chronically underfunded. MBUSD receives $11,657 per student in LCFF funding. The state median is $14,421.
Dohner described the cuts in stark terms at the February 25 meeting .
“We are not trimming fat, we are trimming muscle,” she said.
Even with the possible reduction in cuts, Dohner said last week, the layoffs are cutting far too deeply.
“We are getting very close to the bone,” she said.
Among the teachers who received pink slips this spring was 2025 California Teacher of the Year finalist Maddie Hutchinson, a Mira Costa graduate who returned to teach English and drama.
“This is not the caliber of teacher we would be happy to lose,” Dohner said. “But that’s just a testament to how deep we had to make those initial preliminary notice cuts.”
Hutchinson, who has taught at Mira Costa for 11 years, said the pink slip — formally a Reduction in Force, or RIF — was hard to fathom, given the fact only a year ago she was celebrated as MBUSD’s Teacher of the Year.
“When I was given my RIF this year, I definitely felt taken aback and a bit gutted,” Hutchinson said. “Not only was it difficult to wrap my mind around being Teacher of the Year last year only to be on the chopping block this year, but I figured that after 11 years at MCHS, my name would be higher on the seniority list. I’ve been RIF’d twice before, but I had really thought those days were behind me after I crossed into double digits of service years.”
The cognitive dissonance between being given the district’s highest honor and a pink slip has had a whiplash effect.
“On the one hand, I am eternally grateful for the experience, support, and validation,” Hutchinson said. “On the other hand, it has made me question how a system can applaud you one year but leave you questioning your future the next.”
Hutchinson said her layoff is part of a troubling institutional degradation.
“The English department had 22 teachers when I started and now we have 16. The loss is represented in classroom sizes that have ballooned and the many hours we spend grading essays,” Hutchinson said. “I feel the natural response to teachers leaving is to replace them with new folks so we can maintain healthy class sizes, but that hasn’t consistently happened for a long time. Consequently, some of us remain ‘at the bottom of the list’ despite many years of service.”
At her lowest points, Hutchinson said she questions whether the unpaid hours she puts in — extracurriculars, grading, lesson planning, curriculum revamps — are worthwhile.
“My faith in education and my love of working with young people has always won out over such thoughts,” she said, “but I’d be lying if I said I haven’t had people I love and respect ask me if I should consider switching schools or careers.”
While state funding deficiencies are the larger backdrop, Hutchinson also argued that local spending priorities should also face scrutiny. She said it’s worth examining what the district spends on outside consulting and professional development.
“I realize the current system is to blame more than any one particular person. None of us are specifically targeted but instead find ourselves on the chopping block because of where our name falls on a list,” Hutchinson said. “I’ve challenged myself not to simply accept that and remain silent. I don’t want to simply say, ‘this is just a thing that happens. It is what it is and it’ll go away soon’ because that feels complacent and like I am empowering the harmful cycle to continue. Instead, I’ve tried to engage with others on the importance of hiring new people and looking into how the district spends its money. Even when people want to focus on me specifically or the idea that a Teacher of the Year should be safe — which, of course, I appreciate — I try to redirect the conversation to one that is less about me and my accolades and more about how to hold everyone accountable to appropriately prioritizing what schools need, which includes retaining strong educators and having enough staff to preserve healthy class sizes.”
Mahan has been the community’s most consistent and vocal advocate for addressing the systematic underfunding of local schools. She frames the issue as a state funding problem rather than a local spending issue. And while the community has done what it can to take some measure of local control of revenue — both through MBEF and the Measure MB parcel tax — it has not been enough to keep up with the widening crisis.
“Even with MBEF funding, we are still thousands below the average district in our state,” she said. “There really needs to be a deep look at what’s happening with education funding in general.”
The $7.636 million MBEF contribution is allocated across the district, elementary through high school, with a deliberate and significant shift this year toward class size reduction. At the elementary level, the class size reduction grant grew from $755,000 to nearly $1.06 million. At Manhattan Beach Middle School, it rose from $700,000 to $950,000. At Mira Costa High School, the grant climbed from $1.37 million to $1.62 million. Last year, $1.3 million at Mira Costa funded 55 sections; this year’s $1.62 million will do considerably more.
To pay for the shift, some grant categories were reduced or eliminated. Library specialist funding dropped from $269,500 to $121,000. The Historical Literature and Cultural Experience grant was eliminated entirely. Mira Costa’s Visual and Music Arts grant was cut to zero, though Mahan emphasized those programs are not disappearing.Other funding sources have been identified to replace MBEF’s share.
The library reduction was handled carefully. Students will retain the ability to check out books twice per month, and school sites can schedule additional library time — the only limitation being that books cannot be checked out during unscheduled visits.
“I wanted to dispel any concern,” Mahan said at the board meeting. “Our administration and teachers at the school sites have supported the reduction in these grants so that we can support teacher roles more.”
Mahan said the grant distribution process is rife with hard choices.
“It is a difficult time, and it’s not one in my 10 years being involved with this organization that I enjoy,” Mahan said, “because it really has to encompass just exactly where we’re having the biggest impact.”
Trustee Jen Fenton said what MBEF had achieved could not be easily articulated because it touches nearly every aspect of the education community.
“Granting us over $7 million — this is programmatic support,” Fenton said. “This is supporting our class sizes. This is supporting a climate of care. This is supporting libraries. This is supporting physical education. This is supporting counselors. You are doing it all.”
Deputy Superintendent Dawnalyn Murakawa-Leopard, who has spent years warning the community about the fiscal cliff, framed the grant’s reliability as something the district has come to depend on structurally.
“We are always grateful for them,” Murakawa-Leopard said. “But this year in particular, they have put forth a phenomenal effort, and are giving us the largest grant in the history of MBEF, which is just amazing, and couldn’t come at a more important time for us.”
Board President Tina Shivpuri credited the grants committee, chaired by past MBEF president Scott Rosenthal, for its rigorous, stakeholder-driven process.
“When we do have a problem or a crisis right in front of us,” Shivpuri said, “that’s when partnerships work and work well.”
Trustee Cathey Graves said the Foundation has also worked tirelessly to address the larger systematic funding issues.
“I would like to personally thank MBEF and leadership for not only continuing to raise funds, but additionally for advocating,” Graves said. “You have been hand in hand with us, with PTA, with our parents and teachers and administrators as we are trying to make inroads in Sacramento.”
That advocacy took tangible form Monday. Mahan and Dohner joined a Capitol Convoy delegation to Sacramento, where a coalition of educators, parents and local leaders pressed state legislators for changes to the school funding formula before the state budget is finalized at the end of June. Their focus with legislators was on increasing the LCFF base grant — the per-pupil floor that every district receives regardless of demographics.
“I’m definitely in support of equity funding,” Dohner said. “But they also need to ensure adequacy funding at the same time, meaning there has to be a floor — a minimum allowable funding level. If they established that, we would most definitely be below it.”
The Raise the Base coalition has grown from roughly 70 underfunded districts in 2013 to more than 215 today. The number itself is an argument: what began as a problem concentrated in wealthy, low-need districts like Manhattan Beach has become a statewide crisis of educational adequacy.
Mahan intended to bring Hutchinson’s story to Sacramento as Exhibit A.
“She’s one of our examples we’re going to be sharing with the legislators,” Mahan said. “Look at what’s happening to a district like ours.”
Dohner said the group had returned with a “mix of hope and determination.”
“Hope that some short term relief may be on its way,” she said. “And determination that we have more work to do to break this harmful cycle.”
MBEF has extended its already record-setting appeal. Some jobs will be saved and entire programs maintained because of these grants. But Mahan said 54 percent of the community is generating that entire amount — meaning nearly half of Manhattan Beach families have not yet contributed.
“Imagine what we could do if the remaining families contributed as well,” she told the board. “Even $25, $100, whatever amount is appropriate for a family, can certainly have a very powerful impact.”
Mahan, who marks her eighth year as MBEF executive director on May 1, identified a paradox the district has struggled to overcome: MBUSD’s ongoing excellence may have made the argument for additional public funding harder to win.
A proposed parcel tax measure polled in February drew only 48 percent support, far short of the two-thirds threshold required for passage. The polling consultant attributed the gap in part to a community that views its schools favorably and therefore doesn’t perceive a crisis. Likewise, MBEF’s success in fundraising may have created some complacency.
“Sometimes I think our success has hindered the success of other things — like a high-level parcel tax,” Mahan said. “People say, ‘Oh, well, MBEF’s got it.’ But we have to look at it from all sides. And so that’s where I really see a need to focus. That’s why we’re not stopping.”
As the layoffs last year and this year have demonstrated, MBEF is like a runner on a treadmill — as fast as it runs, trying to keep up, the steepness of the challenge increases faster.
“It’s just never going to be enough,” Mahan said. “That’s why advocacy is so important. We know we can do so much locally but we have to figure out how to build in other capacity.” .but we have to figure out how to build in other capacity” ER
MBEF’s annual appeal remains open at mbef.org.
