What It's All About

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the celebration at the Santa Clara County Office of Education, where Ruskin Elementary School was one of 35 schools in Santa Clara County to be honored as a Distinguished School in 2010. This is the third time in the past four years one of our schools has been so honored.

This week, I want to change pace and rather than focus on our budgetary challenges, I will review some of the great things going on in our schools. After all, these are the reasons we are all involved in the school district, to provide more opportunities for our children to learn and grow.

At the Distinguished School celebration, each honoree school is asked to present a best practice. Ruskin showed off their RuskinFit program. They have made a concerted effort to add physical fitness as an integral part of their educational programs. Ruskin's data shows that fitness correlates with better attendance and improved performance. And this year, Ruskin is a finalist for the Governor's statewide physical fitness challenge. We'll find out next month if they win the grand prize, which comes with $100,000 towards a school fitness center.

Academically, the district continues to show great growth. Eleven of our thirteen schools surpassed the target 800 level on the API in 2009. Noble and Northwood Elementary Schools have climbed above 850. Ruskin scored over 900 for the second straight year.

Toyon Elementary was one of just 8 schools in the state that exited "needs improvement" status in its first year. Toyon has been a leader in using Mind Institute's STMath self-paced program to improve math performance. All the school's classes participate, and by May 1, 12 classes representing over 85% of the student body had achieved progress scores of 75% or better. Toyon was also 1 of 2 schools in San Jose selected to be part of Comcast's national day of service.

It has been a great year for Piedmont Middle School. Last month, their music department participated in the California Heritage Festival in Southern California and was recognized as one of the best music programs in the state. Advanced Choir received a Gold Rating and an invitation to sing at Heritage Festivals Gold Series of concerts at Carnegie Hall next year. Piedmont also took home the biggest award at the festivals, the sweepstakes award, given to the school with the highest score in choir, band, and orchestra.

Piedmont sent 27 students to the Synopsis County Science Fair and 11 came home with prizes. Students from Morrill and Sierramont also participated in the Science Fair. Science starts early in the district, and both Ruskin and Northwood Elementary Schools hosted wonderful science fairs to showcase the work of their students.

Piedmont's AVID program is one of the best in the County. 8 students from that program won spots to attend the 9th Annual AVID Writers Conference held at Stanford University. Piedmont also was recognized as a middle school finalist for the Governor's Physical Fitness Challenge.

This is just a small subset of the great things happening in Berryessa schools. The district's accomplishments in a broad cross section of disciplines are why I am proud to live in the Berryessa School District and even prouder that my daughter is a student in the district. These accomplishments are a testament to the hard work of the dedicated staff at each of our 13 schools and the support of our community for education.

District Office Services

At last week's special board meeting dealing with the budget, the Board requested that the district's administration study the possibility of closing the district office for a week during the summer in order to save money. Most of the savings from such a move would come from savings by forced vacation of district office employees. The proposed budget for 2010-2011 proposed by the district includes savings out of administration of over $200,000, including laying off 1 1/2 people from the business office, savings in principal salary, and cuts to administrative salaries.

Schools have been in a long term budget crisis over the past decade, requiring budget cuts almost every year. Fortunately, our district focused most of the cuts in prior years on district level personnel and administration, in order to preserve services at the school sites. A power point presentation outlines the cuts to the district office since our current Superintendent, Dr. Liebman, joined the district.

Two years ago, the district laid off 9 custodians and has not replaced all the maintenance employees who have retired. Two more such positions are proposed to remain vacant next year.

The Board two years ago asked district administration to compare our administrative staffing and expenditures with those of comparable districts in Santa Clara County. The study (available here) found that we were near the bottom in administrators and staffing per 1000 students in each district office department. The district is currently investigating how that comparison has changed in the two years since.

There has been lots of speculation that school budgetary problems are caused by overspending on school administration. In fact, California has one of the lowest administrator-to-student ratios in the nation. According to the California School Boards Association, statewide, 62 percent of school districts' general funds in 2008-09 went into the classroom and another significant amount went to direct student services such as counselors and libraries. The average district budget spends just 5 percent on "general administration."

It is important to understand all the needs that a school distict has when it comes to administration. There are three departments; Education Services, Business Services, and Personnel Services. Below is a brief description of each of these departments in the Berryessa Union School District.

The Education Services Department oversees curriculum, instruction, staff development, assessment, special education, student services and categorical programs for the thirteen schools. Curriculum is aligned with both state and national content standards. Education Services also helps schools, parents and staff understand, implement, and comply with reforms, statutes, regulations and guidelines. State and national policies regarding school accountability impose a need for more oversight in areas such as student testing, and data decision-making.

The Business Services Department serves the district's 13 schools, maintenance facility, and district office by providing support in developing budgets, handling audits, accounting for attendance, managing payroll, purchasing goods and services, paying bills, ensuring categorical program compliance, managing worker's compensation, controlling inventory, coordinating transportation, running child nutrition services, and overseeing emergency preparedness. The department also oversees warehousing, information technology, and facilities. The Business Services Department is responsible for keeping the books and accounts in proper order in compliance with state and federal regulations. The summer is an important time as final budgets are developed in June and the books on the previous fiscal year are closed in July.

The Personnel Department is responsible for overseeing and carrying out functions related to staffing, including hiring, transfers, layoffs and termination of employees. The department also makes sure personnel practices are followed, personnel records are kept, health and fringe benefits are properly provided, and personnel policies and regulations are aligned with current education and labor codes.

Our district office staff and administration provides a high quality of service in a number of necessary areas, and operates in a very lean manner. I will continually look for ways to save money in these services without cutting corners in a way that will harm district operations.