Last night, the Board of Trustees passed a budget that has been a year in the making. We have held public hearings, study sessions, committee meetings, and many board discussions in the development of this budget, and now the budget has been approved on time.
It is a balanced budget, as required by law. But when I call the budget balanced, I am not simply describing it in a mathematical sense. What I think makes this a strong budget is the balance it achieves in protecting vital school services during unprecedented bad times. Districts around us have had to take extreme measures, such as eliminating library services, cutting counselors back to bare bones levels, or increasing class size at lower grades to 30 students.
The Berryessa School District Board has made it a priority to preserve as much of a rich student experience as possible. To that end, we ruled out closing one of our schools, eliminating elementary music, or closing libraries. Instead, we have spread out the cuts as much as possible. Class size in the primary grades (K-3) will increase to 24, and in the higher grades (4-8), average class size will increase from 30 to 32. Elementary school students will still be offered music through a program that is the envy of other school districts. Clerk time in our school offices will be reduced by 1 hour per day, meaning that front line service for our families will be reduced a bit. District-supported library hours will decrease by 1 hour per day, but students will still be able to make regular visits to the library to read with the media techs and check out books. Each middle school will have a 25% reduction in counselor time, dropping from 2 full time counselors at each school to 1.5. Finally, the school year for the next two years will be shortened by 2 days.
Make no mistake, these reductions are all bad things and we wish the budget situation didn't necessitate having to make these kinds of choices. Families will probably notice a slight reduction in the attention students get and the ability to get things done as quickly. Employees will suffer under reduced hours and higher work loads. But the pain is balanced across all our different activities.
Credit for the ability to create a well-balanced budget goes to everyone in the district. Our fiscal managers have kept our financial house in order such that we are in better shape than many other districts across California. Our employees have stepped up and worked with us to solve our budget challenges. And members of the public have been heavily engaged in the process of developing a budget that continues to meet the priorities of the Berryessa community. Thanks to everyone for their patience and cooperation over the course of the year. Next year will continue to present budgetary challenges, as even with this budget, we continue to face a deficit and will need to make further cuts. But I am confident the district will approach the challenges with the same seriousness with which we developed this year's budget.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
June is Here
June is a busy month as schools wrap up for the year. For the Board of Trustees, June is even more important, as we must have a budget for the district in place by the end of the month. On June 8, the Board will be presented with a budget proposal and the Board will adopt a final budget for 2010-2011 on June 29.
We had been in a holding pattern until the Governor's "May Revision" to the California budget, to see if there would be any changes to education funding. The good news is that no additional reductions were proposed. The bad news is that instead, the Governor has proposed major cuts to social services that are likely to be unacceptable to the Legislature. It remains to be seen where the Legislature will find funding for the health and human services the Governor proposed cutting and whether education will have to sacrifice to fill the gap.
A couple weeks ago, we were hopeful that Congress would pass legislation to provide money for education in one of several proposed Federal Jobs bills. However, just last week, the House abandoned the effort over fears of increasing the federal deficit. Such a bill would have provided California with $3 billion for education, but now it is less likely that such money will arrive to bail us out.
Given that it is unlikely that the California Legislature will adopt a budget for several months, our district must proceed as planned, needing to fill a deficit that amounts to $10 million over the next two years. The framework for the coming cuts has been discussed at public hearings, committee meetings and Board meetings this entire school year. We are now in the final stages of preparing our district for making do with state support of just $4750 per student, which is about $250 less in state funding than last year and an almost 20% reduction over the past three years.
In the meantime, I look forward to end of the year activities at schools across the district. Perhaps I'll see you at an elementary school event or middle school promotion ceremony. And I hope everyone enjoys their summer.
We had been in a holding pattern until the Governor's "May Revision" to the California budget, to see if there would be any changes to education funding. The good news is that no additional reductions were proposed. The bad news is that instead, the Governor has proposed major cuts to social services that are likely to be unacceptable to the Legislature. It remains to be seen where the Legislature will find funding for the health and human services the Governor proposed cutting and whether education will have to sacrifice to fill the gap.
A couple weeks ago, we were hopeful that Congress would pass legislation to provide money for education in one of several proposed Federal Jobs bills. However, just last week, the House abandoned the effort over fears of increasing the federal deficit. Such a bill would have provided California with $3 billion for education, but now it is less likely that such money will arrive to bail us out.
Given that it is unlikely that the California Legislature will adopt a budget for several months, our district must proceed as planned, needing to fill a deficit that amounts to $10 million over the next two years. The framework for the coming cuts has been discussed at public hearings, committee meetings and Board meetings this entire school year. We are now in the final stages of preparing our district for making do with state support of just $4750 per student, which is about $250 less in state funding than last year and an almost 20% reduction over the past three years.
In the meantime, I look forward to end of the year activities at schools across the district. Perhaps I'll see you at an elementary school event or middle school promotion ceremony. And I hope everyone enjoys their summer.
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