Give budgetary control back to school boards

One of Governor Brown's main philosophies related to school funding is giving control and accountability to local school boards when it comes to budgetary decisions.  That is why last year's action to potentially cap local district reserves was so surprising. There is a bill in the legislature to modify the reserve limit. In the Aug. 27 Mercury News, I encouraged the state legislature to pass the legislation:

-------

As a school board member for nine years, I have pushed hard to spend every available resource on services for students. That includes fairly compensating our employees for the tremendous work they do every day.

We have an obligation to make sure that our spending is sustainable beyond the current year. Using one-time money, as Jan Frydendahl (Letter, Aug. 25) suggests, to provide employee salaries can put districts in a bind in future years. Negotiations and spending plans are driven by three-year budgets in order to guarantee a healthy reserve is maintained three years into the future.

Many school districts only survived the last recession by spending down reserves that were responsibly saved during stable times. The state must return budgetary control to local school boards by passing SB 799, which will allow school districts to do long-term planning as they prepare their budgets.

David Cohen
Trustee, Berryessa Union School District

Optimism Abounds as New School Year Approaches

Too many times in the past, I had written blog posts decrying the poor state of school funding in California, which required that we make tough choices as a school district and cut crucial programs. Fortunately, the economy has been improving for the past few years. Governor Brown and the legislature have shown a strong commitment to investing in public education. So I am optimistic that funding for schools will continue to grow as long as the economy remains healthy. (It is important to keep in mind that another recession could occur and that Prop. 30 is expiring over the next two years, so the state's continued general fund growth is not certain.)

California was 48th in the nation in per-pupil funding just a couple of years ago. It looks like we have moved up closer to the average. Average shouldn't be good enough - as the home of the 7th largest economy in the world, we should be in the top ranks of funding for schools. And while funding has grown significantly since the nadir of the Great Recession, being back at 2007 funding levels means that we haven't seen any growth in nearly a decade. The Governor's Local Control Funding Formula set a target for school funding that won't be reached until after 2020, even at projected funding growth rates.

Having said all that, this past year has finally put us in a position to invest in Berryessa Schools again. We are strategically adding services and restoring cuts, and there have been some exciting changes put in place for the upcoming school year. 

I am very pleased that we have made social emotional well being of our students a key element of our Strategic Plan. Last year, we invested in having a full time social worker at each of our middle schools. But success in this area starts with our elementary school students. So this year, we are funding 3 full time social workers for our elementary schools, which means that the baseline level of support at each of our 10 elementary schools is 1 1/2 days per week. We are also adding two part time English Language teachers to enhance service to our EL students.

As we add more and more technology at our school sites, there is a greater need for somebody at each site to manage and maintain the computers that our students use. We have added funding this year so that each site will have a Technology Champion on the staff. 

It has been nearly two decades since we have invested district money in new materials for our school libraries. This year, we have set aside $5000 for each school to buy new books and other instructional materials.

Other cuts that have stretched our staff are being reversed. All school clerks are now back to the number of hours they had before the recession. And this year, we are adding a new custodian, although we are still several positions below where we were in 2008.

Finally, I am very pleased that our growing resources have allowed us to provide financial rewards to our dedicated employees. They sacrificed so much during the difficult years. Over the past two school years, we have negotiated increase an increase in total compensation for each employee of about 12%. We are not yet where we want to be in terms of paying our employees, but we are closer to the target than we have been in a long time.

The district is working hard to be ready for the start of the school year. We look forward to seeing all the students back on campus on Monday, August 24.