Congratulations to Berryessa's Employees of the Year

As the new school year starts, we should acknowledge those who are the key to the success of the Berryessa School District. We are successful because of the dedication and hard work of our wonderful employees; teachers, staff, and administration. These selfless people care deeply about the well-being of our children.

At the August 24 Board meeting, three employees were singled out as district Employees of the Year. These are employees selected by their peers for demonstrating high expectations of themselves and enhancing the educational opportunities for the district's students. They exemplify the professionalism of our staff and what is outstanding about our district.

The Classified Employee of the year is Diana Carlet, who is the School Secretary at Noble Elementary School. She helps keep that school running smoothly and is the smiling face that greets every visitor to the school. More importantly, she always has a focus on the students and provides incredible customer service to everyone who comes through the doors at Noble.

Administrator of the year is Chris Mosley, the principal at Morrill Middle School. Wherever in the district Mr. Mosely has been assigned, he has sought excellence, made the success of students his highest priority, and worked closely with staff and parents to make his school the best possible place. Prior to being principal at Morrill, he spent several years as the beloved principal of Noble Elementary School and assistant principal at Sierramont Middle School.

This year's Teacher of the year, who will represent the district at the County Teacher awards in September, is Randy Lee, a kindergarten teacher at Ruskin Elementary School. Mr. Lee has an amazing ability to work with youngsters who are just starting school, to motivate them and teach them the skills they need to be successful as they embark on the journey toward high school graduation. He represents the values we expect from all of our teachers.

Congratulations to all three winners. And thanks to all the employees of the Berryessa Union School District.

Schools Are Ready for Return of Students

Next Monday, students will flood back into Berryessa schools. Teachers and staff are already back in the schools readying their classrooms and lesson plans. Families and children I have spoken to are excited in anticipating a new school year.

During the summer, employees in the facilities department have been busy making needed improvements, fixing up playgrounds, and making sure all the schools are in good shape for the year.

Today, I visited Northwood and Cherrywood schools, where their roofs and HVAC equipment have finally been replaced. Lots of dry rot was found in the old roofing material at Northwood, and I know the staff there will be happy to stay dry during the next rainy season. Contractors are working hard to make sure everything is ready when school opens on Monday.

There was much publicity during the summer of the fire at Trace Elementary School in the San Jose Unified School District. This summer, we upgraded the fire alarm systems at Northwood and Ruskin Elementary Schools to bring them up to code.

Fields and playgrounds have also been tended to during the summer. All kindergarten playgrounds have had their tan bark replaced with new rubber material. The kids will love it.

Welcome back everyone. Berryessa Union School District is open for business for another school year.

Consolidating Our District with Orchard

Over the years, I have had numerous discussions with people about consolidating our district with Orchard, a single-school district located right next to Berryessa. Intuitively, it makes a lot of sense to consolidate and would seem to be the best way to maximize the benefit of limited education dollars.

This past spring, the Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury came to a similar conclusion. They suggested several district consolidations across the county, one being the Berryessa-Orchard combination.

There are many issues that would have to be resolved before such a consolidation could occur. Here is the letter I wrote in response to the Grand Jury, which is my obligation as Board President.

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Dear Ms. Cardoza,

I received a copy of the final report "Achieving School District Efficiency Through Consolidation." In accordance to CPC Section 933.05(a), I write to respond to the findings of the report relating to the Berryessa Union School District. The District appreciates the recommendation to consolidate the Berryessa Union and Orchard School Districts. Intuitively, such a merger makes sense in trying to maximize the benefit of every public dollar spent on education for our students. However, there are also serious concerns that would need to be overcome in order to make such a merger work in the current fiscal and educational environment.

There are many variables in any merger that may have a negative impact on the students and community of the Berryessa Union School District, both academically and fiscally. Our district would need to study the mechanics of a merger and make sure that any concerns are adequately explored and addressed. That being said, Berryessa Union School District is willing to begin discussions with the Orchard School District Board of Trustees about consolidation and how some of the negative aspects of that action might be mitigated if consolidation is deemed feasible by both districts.

The Berryessa Union School District will not entertain consolidation unilaterally, but if initiated by the Orchard School District and/or the Santa Clara County Committee on School District Organization will cooperate fully with them in considering such an action.


Sincerely,



David Cohen
President
Board of Trustees

Not Out of the Woods Yet

In June, the Berryessa Union School District passed a budget that is balanced for 2010-2011, but the district is still deficit spending, meaning that any remaining reserves will be gone in the 2011-2012 school year if further cuts are not made. State law usually mandates a 3% reserve, which will also be gone unless action is taken.

By the time the district submits its first interim budget at the end of this calendar year, we must demonstrate that we are able to reduce spending or increase revenues by enough to maintain that reserve. Otherwise, the district runs the risk of being classified with a "qualified" financial rating. That means that the district is at risk of falling short of adequate funding going forward, although not in danger of immediate bankruptcy. The consequence of this filing will be additional oversight and control by the Santa Clara County Office of Education.

The number of at risk school districts across the state has increased by 38% since the beginning of 2010, according to a story in the Los Angeles Times.

The Mercury News ran a similar story that listed districts that are facing financial risk. In Santa Clara County, Frankiln-McKinley and Orchard are at risk in 2010-11, while East Side Union HS District and Milpitas Unified face risk for 2011-12. The Board's goal is to keep the budget balanced so that we stay off the at-risk list. (UPDATE: Franklin-McKinley was originally listed as "qualified" before they implemented huge cuts in the spring that brought their finances back in line.)

John Festerwald of the Silicon Valley Education Foundation discussed in his blog the danger already facing 16% of districts across the state. Districts that fall into negative certification are at risk of being taken over the by the state. Fourteen districts fell into that category this year, most of which are in the Bay Area.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said that "the contributing factor is lack of adequate funding from the state for several years in a row. These are cuts upon cuts upon cuts. It's totally exhausted whatever revenue they might have in terms of their surplus, in terms of money set aside." In Berryessa, those cuts total 18% of our revenues.

The deficit Berryessa is facing looks like it will approach $3 million by the end of the coming school year. We just struggled to reduce the budget by $8 million, but the work is not done. Stay tuned for further discussion of how the district will approach the budget process for next year.

Summer in the District Office

In order to save money, the District Office is closed this week. Employees who work there are either on forced vacation or unpaid time, depending on their job classification and amount of vacation accrued. Some people suggest that the office should be shut down for the entire month of July.

I had the pleasure of spending a couple hours in the District Office last week in order to meet with those who are working hard over the summer to make sure that the district is ready for the new school year that starts at the end of August. Many people do not realize how much work is done during the summer, when students, teachers, and other school employees are not in school. Here are a few examples of the crucial work being done during the summer.

• The fiscal year of a school district closes on June 30. Just like a private business, the business office must close the books and reconcile the ending balances during the month of July. In some ways, July is the most important month of the year for the business office, and it may be the most stressful.
  
• The personnel office must make sure that all vacant school jobs are filled. Teachers and staff who retire and leave must be replaced by the time the new school year begins.
  
• The special education department runs the mandated summer school programs and works on contracts for the education of special needs students.
  
• The nutrition services director is working on menus for the coming school year and making sure that contracts are in place for all the ingredients that are purchased during the year.
  
• The facilities department is managing all kinds of site improvement projects, from capital work on roofs, HVAC, and fields, to restriping of parking lots, playground maintenance, and basic repairs at all the school sites.
  
• The IT department is working to make sure that all the site computers have the latest software and will work with the new internet backbone and client-server setup.
  
• Education Services staff are processing enrollment forms for new students entering the district and making sure that all students have necessary vaccination records in place.

As you can see, a proper functioning district requires lots of hard working and dedicated employees. Important work is done during the summer so that schools are ready for the next school year and the transition from summer to fall is a seamless one for students and their families.

A BALANCED Budget

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.

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.