San Diego Unified could dip $2.5 million into the hole next spring because California is putting off payments to schools, even more than the school district had been expecting.
Its finance chief says that makes it impossible for the school district to rehire any more of its jettisoned employees. It could also force them to let go more school workers who don't teach.
"This is a very sobering report," Superintendent Bill Kowba said. "The common theme is incredible risk from one week to the next."
The embattled Promise charter school was offered another chance to stay open if it agreed to remake its board through democratic elections, undergo training on transparency and conflict-of-interest laws, and meet a slew of other conditions.
But that chance could be pulled away after the charter tried to tinker with it.
The San Diego Unified school board will weigh its fate tonight in a meeting that could go in two radically different directions: taking the next step toward closing the troubled school or halting the process and letting it survive.