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.