March 12, 2009

Uncertain times lead to uncertain actions

By Carol Rosen
Editor

When California legislators finally passed the budget in February, they slashed an important segment of funding—education. Their actions have led school districts throughout the state to seek ways to make their own budgets work with less money.

San Jose Unified’s CFO Ann Rice, Superintendent Don Iglesias, and SJUSD’s President of the Board of Education Leslie Reynolds met with parents from area schools at Leland High School to shed some light on how the state budget will affect the students of local schools. Photo by Shana Moore

Districts are uncertain exactly what funds will be available because they are awaiting the fallout from the stimulus package along with hope that the federal government might provide some funds. There’s talk about teacher layoffs, cutting back on important programs such as class size reduction and/or sports or further reducing extra programs, such as art and music.

State education budgets for this school year include about $2.3 billion for K-12 split half and half between revenue limits per student and state categoricals as well as $160 per student revenue limits and 15 percent categorical programs. Next year’s cuts for K-12 continue with another $45 per student revenue limits and 5 percent to categorical programs or $205 per student revenue limits and 20 percent for categoricals.

No one knows what’s going to happen—yet—but local districts are going out to the community to see what parents and other residents think.

San Jose Unified
Last Tuesday night, San Jose Unified School District held a meeting at Leland High School that featured Superintendent Don Iglesias and School Board President Leslie Reynolds. Between 170 and 200 people attended the meeting, which was followed on March 5 with a meeting at Lincoln. Three other meetings are scheduled, all at local high schools beginning at 6:30 p.m.: March 19 at Pioneer, March 24 at San Jose High Academy and March 30 at Willow Glen High.

Iglesias told those attending the Leland meeting that, “We will do our best to keep the deep cuts as far from the classroom as possible. We are committed to deliver a budget that continues to give students hope, opportunity and access to college. That’s our bottom line. At this time we continue to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.”

The district projected revenue loss for 2008-09 is $12.6 million, which is 5.2 percent less revenue than 2007-08. Next year’s loss is projected at $16.5 million or 6.8 percent less than 2007-08.

On Friday, March 13 pink slips will go out to 400 teachers, most are temporary and probationary. Some may be rehired. Another 170 administrative and certified employees will be notified of reassignment or termination, said district spokes-person Karen Fuqua.

Currently the district is hoping to remain flexible and Fuqua says top officials are not looking to cut out the class size reduction program. Sports too, she mentioned, are not on the block, although individual schools could cut some sports programs. One area that may see cuts is transportation, increasing students’ walk to schools.

According to the program presented by Iglesias, block grants are in question with counselors, resource teachers, librarians, arts and instructional technology possibly becoming obsolete. “This all depends on how things are recrafted and what programs we will be able to continue to fund,” said Fuqua.

The district has no flexibility to cut Tier I programs such as EIA, child development, special education, Prop 49-after school education and child nutrition among others. Tier II cuts include a 15 percent cut in revenue and 5 percent more with no flexibility with Tier III receiving a 15 percent cut and 5 percent more with complete flexibility through 2012-13. Legis-lators cut base funding and categorical funding for special services to students such as art and music and the gifted and talented programs.

During the program Iglesias told parents that extensive cuts were made during the three-year period from 2002 to 2005. Among these were reductions in maintenance staff, nurses, district office and clerical positions, school management, school clerical staffing, librarians and administrative support. It also reduced school site supplies and central department budgets including supplies, equipment, travel and consultant and attorney costs. In addition, the district was able to reduce salary costs and save positions through retirement incentives.

However, solutions for this year and next may not be easy to find because uncertainty remains. Several factors could change the scenario, according to the presentation, including five specific proposals to be voted on during a May 19 special election, which are required to implement the budget plan. The state will introduce new budget forecasts on May 25.

The federal stimulus offers one time allocations of nearly $4.3 million for Title I and nearly $7 million for IDEA. Additional monies from the fiscal stabilization could be about $4 billion for the state. “If half goes to K-12 that’s about $266 per ADA.

The district currently has unrestricted reserves of 9 percent equaling $27 million with another slightly more than $10 million including $1.5 million from the two-day employee furlough, estimated $4 million in savings from the expenditure freeze, $4.4 million or 7 percent of state categorical reserved and $1 million of the 0.68 revenue limited cost of living in reserve. The superintendant, assistant superintendants and CBO will take five non-paid furlough days next year.

Once the community meetings end, the district will formulate its recommendations in April, take board action in May to hand out final assignment notices to its certificated staff and adopt a balanced budget in June.

Parents are encouraged to provide input to the district through the March meetings, parent brown bag meetings, the community budget survey and online and paper surveys. All information is anonymous. The survey is located at www.sjusd.org under community budget survey on the home page.

At the Leland meeting, school board President Leslie Reynolds encouraged the community to participate in the survey located on the district Web site. “The education budget is like a puzzle; there are a variety of pieces that come together to make it whole. Some parts we can impact and others we can’t. We need to know your feelings on the areas of the budget we can control,” she told attendants.

Union School District
Union School District Superintendant Dr. Jacqueline Horejs told the Times that her district’s state funding is reduced by $819,017 this year and $1,084,468 for 2009-10. But the district is not planning massive layoffs.

“We are spending some time making some reductions, but I prefer to call them efficiencies because this gives us a chance to become more efficient,” she told the Times.

And, while the district is planning for the worst-case scenario, it has been “fiscally responsible over the years and provides us a rainy day fund that allows us to keep as much of our quality programs as possible. “ And, she estimates that the district can meet the current fiscal challenges because of the rainy day fund. Although she also suggested a bond or parcel tax may be necessary down the road.

“Everyone is looking at what to do to make efficient savings that won’t negatively impact classes,” she said. “We want to keep cuts as far away as possible from our top-notch educational program.”

Like SJUSD, Union has held a number of stakeholder meetings to look for ways to reduce expenditures and increase revenues. The district plans to determine the best methods and put them into action. “The board is looking at various programs. But we plan to maintain the integrity of our programs to the greatest extent possible.”

However, in her monthly message to parents, Horejs cautioned, “that as economic conditions continue to decline, we will have to accept changes. As a society, Americans have always been able to adapt and adjust and, ultimately, become better as a result. I believe that as a school district we have what it takes to continue doing what we do best – providing a top-notch educational experience for all children who enter our school house doors. There are challenges and there will be changes, but we will keep the best interests of our students at the forefront of all decisions.”