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Saturday, May 18, 2013
School board approves cuts to teachers, sports and band in 'worst-case scenario' budget
by Monica Stark, published on March 4, 2011 at 5:43 PM
Storyline: EDUCATION
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The Sacramento City Unified School District board unanimously voted to balance the district's projected “worst-case” budget shortfall of $22.35 million by eliminating financial support for sports, drama, yearbook, newspaper, marching band, cheerleading and speech and debate.
The proposal is to eliminate “extra pay for extra-duty stipends,” uniform replacements funds, athletic trainer funds and co-curricular transportation funds for a savings of $1.26 million, according to the district.
Board members also voted to reduce the district’s counseling staff by 37 percent, eliminating one assistant principal position at each high school and raising K-3 class sizes at two grade levels. The board previously approved raising class sizes for all other grades – including 40 students per teacher at the high school level.
“It's a horrible scenario. The superintendent and board will still continue to look for ways to fund these programs,” said spokesman Gabe Rosson Friday morning.
The district is racing to meet a March 15 deadline to present a balanced budget to the Sacramento County Office of Education or risk receiving a “negative” rating, which could lead to state takeover. This year’s budgeting process is especially challenging, as the state’s funding of K-12 districts hinges on voters extending current temporary taxes in a June 7 special election.
Gov. Jerry Brown is asking for a two-thirds vote in the State Legislature for such a measure and has given legislators a March 10 deadline. If the taxes are not extended, SCUSD will face a $22.35 million shortfall.
Sacramento Teachers Associated President Linda Tuttle said Friday afternoon that she was shocked the cuts went as deep as they did.
So far, the Legislature has not placed tax extensions on the ballot, but Tuttle said she believes it's more than likely they will make it as the Sacramento Metro Chamber announced its support of the tax extensions.
Tuttle said she calls on voters to choose to fund programs they had when they were students. “What do voters value? These are the things they had in schools. We're at the mercy of the voters,” she said.
Tuttle said that if the tax extensions do get on the ballot and pass, the budget situation would be bearable to teachers. They would have to “only cut 6-9 million – we can do that … oh golly, cut only 6-9 million: That's a ridiculous statement.”
Raising class sizes, which must be negotiated with unions, reduces the need for teachers. The board also approved layoff notices to certificated staff, which includes teachers, counselors and other positions.
Tuttle said that teachers agreed last year to keep class sizes down by giving $95 a month to the district. If the worst-case scenario materializes and class sizes go up, she said the union might seek legal action, though they are hoping they won't go that route.
“These proposed cuts are terrible,” said Superintendent Jonathan Raymond. “There isn’t an expendable position in our district. We have no surplus staff. We have no programs that are simply ‘icing on the cake.’ Sports, drama, yearbook – these are programs students need and deserve. Often, these so-called ‘extras’ are the only reason kids come to school.”
SCUSD’s worst-case shortfall is on top of $177 million in cuts to SCUSD’s budget in the last nine years – a 35 percent reduction in what was once a $500 million budget. Even if voters pass tax extensions in a special election, it is projected that more cuts will be needed to balance SCUSD’s budget for next year, due to the lingering recession and enrollment declines in some areas.
As soon as the 3 p.m. bell rang at Hiram Johnson High School, band teacher Kevin Goings was joined with seven students who are part of a drum lineup who, as music director Luana Hernandez said, were playing just to play.
“We're investing in you right now,” Goings, said when one of them missed a beat. The group gathers about four days a week after school and was started about two years ago when Goings revamped the program, explained Hernandez.
Hernandez noted that because stipends are going to be cut, more impoverished schools will suffer more than others.
To raise awareness of budget issues, the district has been holding a series of community forums. The district also has asked its community to participate in a budget priorities survey, which is available at www.scusd.edu.
In a letter to employees, Raymond urged family members, friends and neighbors throughout the state to contact their elected officials to support getting the tax extensions on the June 7 ballot.
“We need the public to understand that years of the state balancing its budget on the backs of kids has eliminated all the easy solutions to public education under-funding,” Raymond said. “As a colleague of mine recently said, not only is all the ‘low-hanging fruit’ gone, the tree is gone.”
Monica Stark can be reached at monica.stark@sacramentopress.com
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Ideally, people teach because they enjoy teaching, and considering how underpaid teachers are (including benefits) there pretty much have to be motivations other than money in that career choice. But teachers must eat, and feed families, and if a potential teacher is drawn to other fields by higher pay, we end up with a shortage of qualified teachers. In the private sector, any talk of limits on executive compensation is met cries that claim salary limits will prevent the best and brightest from going to work in that field. But somehow in schools, teachers are expected to work for a pittance because of the "satisfaction" they get.
I don't understand that...is it because teaching used to be considered "women's work," and careers that involve "parenting" skills (like teaching) are expected to receive less compensation, while more manly fields (like banking) naturally should receive higher salaries?
Run that help wanted ad again, and include the actual time a teacher spends doing their job. Then compare teacher salaries and benefits to jobs of equal educational requirements (equivalent of a master's degree.) Your ad might get a lot of people willing to TAKE the job...but not so many able to DO the job. There's a difference.
http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/10facts/edlite-chart.html
How dumbed down is we?
Is this adequate funding to provide a high quality, well-rounded educational experience for our youth? I don't know. But it cerainly is telling that the SCUSD doesn't make it especially easy to find their budget. If budgets have been cut to the bone, than I would think that the SCUSD and the CTA would be advertising the budget documents with gusto. To me it feels more like researching the finances of the City of Bell...
There may be a good argument that current funding levels are inadequate. But without comparisons to other districts and open budgets, how can a voter know? It is tough to support any tax increase until we have at least a basic level of transparency here.
As for the tired old saw about teachers "being continually undervalued and underpaid", it is like the one about Vietnam Vets being ignored: true at one time but no more. In my experience, teachers are among the most lauded professions in the media. This martyr complex is a red herring.
Regardless of whether CEOs and teachers are directly comparable, do you really believe that we can maintain the same quality (and quantity) of teachers if they are paid less? Does the law of supply and demand not work for teachers? And as to the old saw, if we value our teachers more than, say, our bankers, why do we pay them less?
But the fact of the matter is that there is a huge oversupply of qualifiied teachers right now. The fact that teachers have been able to maintain $59K average salary for not quite a full time job is a testament to the enormous political power of the teachers unions. Teachers and their unions prefer to cannabilize their own by laying of younger teachers before considering pay cuts, even while there are thousands of unemployed teachers looking for a job.
Ultimately this circles back to the definitiion of "qualified teacher". The CTA, by its nature, is there primarily to protect the interests of the worst teachers, and the longest tenured. The really good teachers don't need a union, in a normal competitve environment could get a job anywhere, and in fact are often at cross-purposes with their union. The CTA could resolve the over-supply situation by raising the standards for teacher qualification, thereby maintaining wage levels, professionalizing the trade, cutting into the oversupply of jobseekers, while hopefully also providing a better education for our kids.
This taxpayer has serious reservations about district and union claims that there is not enough money available to teach our kids. Our system is clearly broken, evidenced by the fact the amount of dollars being pumped in doesn't correlate to better results. Absent major reforms, I think a lot of others have the same attitude.
But on the other hand I will be very happy to fund a reformed education system reforms with true professional teachers operating in a professional environment who demand and deserve professional level compensation.
Even when funding was available, you could never consider something like getting union support for paying math/science teachers 2x of your typical teacher with liberal arts degree. A school board member who would propose such blasphemy would be facing heavy union opposition in the next election.
I have a science/engineering background and have looked into it myself. The lack of math/science teachers in the classroom goes way beyond the current budget issues and is actually an institutional problem.
Eliminate collective bargaining and tenure let districts compete in the market place for teachers based on supply, demand and merit.
Yes they do. And even if student performed equally, a non-union district allows more pro-active mgmt of the budget. Which is also good for students.
http://blogs.ajc.com/kyle-wingfield/2011/03/03/do-unionized-teachers-really-produce-better-results/