The Latest News from Sacramento

There was a lot going on during the summer that will affect the coming school year. While there has been no progress toward a state budget resolution, there have been other legislative actions of note. Most importantly, Congress stepped up and passed a new Jobs Act, which allocated billions of dollars to save education jobs. California will receive about $1.2 billion as a result of that action. It is unclear yet how much money the Berryessa School District will receive. Estimates range from $100,000 to nearly $1 million. Regardless of the amount, the extra revenue is welcome. Yesterday, California's legislature passed a bill to release the money quickly and allocate almost all of it to local education agencies. So we will find out soon how much it means for us. It is important to remember that once again, this federal money is one-time money that that can help us balance our budget this year and have a more positive beginning balance next year.

Another bill that passed the legislature yesterday is one that will gradually change the qualifying age for kindergarten. By the year 2015, children would have to turn 5 before September 1 to be eligible to start elementary school. A new Transitional Kindergarten would be established for children who miss the new cutoff, funded by the money that would have been spent on regular kindergarten. These changes would ensure that students are ready to succeed when they enter kindergarten.

When I last wrote about the district's budget, it looked like we had a deficit of nearly $3 million. As a result of the district's great work controlling expenses, when the books closed on 2009-2010, the deficit had dropped to $1.8 million. Once the Federal jobs money is received, that number will be even lower. All of the district's employees should be thanked for being fiscally responsible and keeping us in a position to retain as many services for our students as possible.

Of course, until California has a state budget, it is unclear exactly what our district's budget will look like. So we will continue to monitor the discussions going on in Sacramento and continue to be fiscally prudent while providing Berryessa's children with a quality education.