As I have described in previous posts, Governor Brown's budget proposal would result in only minimal cuts to K-12 education in California, but only if California voters are given the opportunity to vote to extend existing tax levels and if they vote yes. This week, our Board approved a resolution urging the legislature to put the measure on the ballot so that voters have a chance to decide whether to keep the revenue stream in place to support schools and other key services.
Unfortunatly, even if the measure makes the ballot, the election will not be held until June. Since school districts are required to have a balanced budget by the end of June, we will have to proceed as if the taxes expire and we have a deficit to fill. Conservative estimates suggest that we would be short $349 per student if the tax measure fails, but some people, including the Legislative Analayst's Office, are now suggesting that the cuts could be more than twice that amount. (For the LAO's discussion of that scenario, click here.)
The next looming deadline is March 15, when certificated employees (teachers, counselors, nurses, librarians) must be notified that they may lose their jobs at the end of the year. Since we must be prepared for major cuts, it will be necessary to hand out a large number of "pink slips" again this year.
As budget planning and negotiations with our employee unions proceed, the district will have a better idea of what cuts will end up being made. In a future article, I will provide specifics of the cuts being proposed. Once again, it will be important for the public, particularly parents of our students, to comment on their priorities. What programs are more important to you - music, libraries, class size, counselors, middle school electives, etc? Over the next couple months, I will be asking for your feedback. Encourage as many people as possible to weigh in with their thoughts.
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5 comments:
Why are you in favor of larger class sizes?
Of course I am not in favor of larger class sizes. I consider class size as one option amongst a series of bad choices that have been available during the unprecedented budget cuts that have been imposed on California schools over the past few years. I'm very proud of the fact that while many of our neighboring districts increased K-3 class sizes up to 30:1, Berryessa was able to balance the 2010-2011 budget at 24:1. If the voters approve the extension of current tax rates in a June special election, we'll be able to keep classes at those sizes next year, and perhaps even drop back to 20:1 in fall 2012.
Keeping class sizes as small as possible is important to me as my children will be in primary grades in the district for the next 5 years. I have seen the effect in my daughter's classroom of having 4 extra classmates.
However, if the tax measures do not pass and education takes the hit that is being predicted, school districts across the state will once again have to make significant cuts. Class size is one of the biggest ticket items available. In order to keep class sizes at their current level and make $2.5 million or more in cuts, several other cuts would have to be made instead - elementary music, middle school counselors, library media techs, the last remaining district nurse, the district librarian, and middle school electives would all be vulnerable. Over the past few years, I have done lots of research on the trade-offs. One thing I have learned is that academic studies show that unless class sizes go below 17 or above 33, there is no discernible effect on students' performance.
As our budget planning process continues, I will discuss these trade-offs on this blog and seek feedback from people on what solutions they prefer. Thanks for your question, an important one in the context of the difficult choices the board must consider.
20:1 in the fall of 2012? Why haven't you proposed that? I've heard you sacrifice all students (larger classes) for the priviledged few (music).
Thank you for your obvious concern about our district. Sadly this isn't just about class size vs. music. The level of cuts that would be required if the tax measures fail require multiple big-ticket savings. Increasing K-3 class size to 28:1 is worth about $650,000. Eliminating all of elementary school music is worth $300,000. So to make equivalent cuts would require music plus more than one of these other cuts: counselors, nurse, media techs, middle school electives, librarian, closing a school. It is in that context that trade-offs are being discussed.
If music were no longer available, only those that have the money and time to participate after school or on weekends would be exposed to music. That would make it more of an elite activity. The reason to offer music during the school day is to maximize the number of students who can participate. There is all kinds of research about the academic benefit of music education (ie http://ezinearticles.com/?Importance-of-Music-in-School-Cirruculum&id=842055).
Other alternatives that must be considered are freezing/cutting salaries and shortening the school year further (furloughing employees). Most of the options require agreement from our teachers' union to implement. Even cutting music would require that 4-5 teachers give up their prep periods that they are contractually guaranteed. So all options must be on the table until it is clear which ones will be accepted and how many will be needed.
The current district budget has class size going back to 20:1 at primary grades in August 2012. The discussion we are having is about what changes to make if the tax measures fail and drastic cuts are once again required. I will do all I can to promote the election in June, in the hopes that we can stick with our original plan and end the cycle of cuts that have been forced on us.
if we have to sacrifice something, I would like to sacrifice library first, as we can access most information from network in 21st centry. couselors will be the next one. Though they are warm-hearted and helpful, but I believe parents could share more responsibility. Then the next one is class size. It is ok to me if class size is increased a little bit. when I was in school, I have 50 classmates in my class. it is not so bad as you have chance to have more friends. I hope we could keep music and most middle school electives. That is what schools are supposed to provide to students. And most parent are not able to offer systematic knowledge to their children.
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