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.

What It's All About

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the celebration at the Santa Clara County Office of Education, where Ruskin Elementary School was one of 35 schools in Santa Clara County to be honored as a Distinguished School in 2010. This is the third time in the past four years one of our schools has been so honored.

This week, I want to change pace and rather than focus on our budgetary challenges, I will review some of the great things going on in our schools. After all, these are the reasons we are all involved in the school district, to provide more opportunities for our children to learn and grow.

At the Distinguished School celebration, each honoree school is asked to present a best practice. Ruskin showed off their RuskinFit program. They have made a concerted effort to add physical fitness as an integral part of their educational programs. Ruskin's data shows that fitness correlates with better attendance and improved performance. And this year, Ruskin is a finalist for the Governor's statewide physical fitness challenge. We'll find out next month if they win the grand prize, which comes with $100,000 towards a school fitness center.

Academically, the district continues to show great growth. Eleven of our thirteen schools surpassed the target 800 level on the API in 2009. Noble and Northwood Elementary Schools have climbed above 850. Ruskin scored over 900 for the second straight year.

Toyon Elementary was one of just 8 schools in the state that exited "needs improvement" status in its first year. Toyon has been a leader in using Mind Institute's STMath self-paced program to improve math performance. All the school's classes participate, and by May 1, 12 classes representing over 85% of the student body had achieved progress scores of 75% or better. Toyon was also 1 of 2 schools in San Jose selected to be part of Comcast's national day of service.

It has been a great year for Piedmont Middle School. Last month, their music department participated in the California Heritage Festival in Southern California and was recognized as one of the best music programs in the state. Advanced Choir received a Gold Rating and an invitation to sing at Heritage Festivals Gold Series of concerts at Carnegie Hall next year. Piedmont also took home the biggest award at the festivals, the sweepstakes award, given to the school with the highest score in choir, band, and orchestra.

Piedmont sent 27 students to the Synopsis County Science Fair and 11 came home with prizes. Students from Morrill and Sierramont also participated in the Science Fair. Science starts early in the district, and both Ruskin and Northwood Elementary Schools hosted wonderful science fairs to showcase the work of their students.

Piedmont's AVID program is one of the best in the County. 8 students from that program won spots to attend the 9th Annual AVID Writers Conference held at Stanford University. Piedmont also was recognized as a middle school finalist for the Governor's Physical Fitness Challenge.

This is just a small subset of the great things happening in Berryessa schools. The district's accomplishments in a broad cross section of disciplines are why I am proud to live in the Berryessa School District and even prouder that my daughter is a student in the district. These accomplishments are a testament to the hard work of the dedicated staff at each of our 13 schools and the support of our community for education.

District Office Services

At last week's special board meeting dealing with the budget, the Board requested that the district's administration study the possibility of closing the district office for a week during the summer in order to save money. Most of the savings from such a move would come from savings by forced vacation of district office employees. The proposed budget for 2010-2011 proposed by the district includes savings out of administration of over $200,000, including laying off 1 1/2 people from the business office, savings in principal salary, and cuts to administrative salaries.

Schools have been in a long term budget crisis over the past decade, requiring budget cuts almost every year. Fortunately, our district focused most of the cuts in prior years on district level personnel and administration, in order to preserve services at the school sites. A power point presentation outlines the cuts to the district office since our current Superintendent, Dr. Liebman, joined the district.

Two years ago, the district laid off 9 custodians and has not replaced all the maintenance employees who have retired. Two more such positions are proposed to remain vacant next year.

The Board two years ago asked district administration to compare our administrative staffing and expenditures with those of comparable districts in Santa Clara County. The study (available here) found that we were near the bottom in administrators and staffing per 1000 students in each district office department. The district is currently investigating how that comparison has changed in the two years since.

There has been lots of speculation that school budgetary problems are caused by overspending on school administration. In fact, California has one of the lowest administrator-to-student ratios in the nation. According to the California School Boards Association, statewide, 62 percent of school districts' general funds in 2008-09 went into the classroom and another significant amount went to direct student services such as counselors and libraries. The average district budget spends just 5 percent on "general administration."

It is important to understand all the needs that a school distict has when it comes to administration. There are three departments; Education Services, Business Services, and Personnel Services. Below is a brief description of each of these departments in the Berryessa Union School District.

The Education Services Department oversees curriculum, instruction, staff development, assessment, special education, student services and categorical programs for the thirteen schools. Curriculum is aligned with both state and national content standards. Education Services also helps schools, parents and staff understand, implement, and comply with reforms, statutes, regulations and guidelines. State and national policies regarding school accountability impose a need for more oversight in areas such as student testing, and data decision-making.

The Business Services Department serves the district's 13 schools, maintenance facility, and district office by providing support in developing budgets, handling audits, accounting for attendance, managing payroll, purchasing goods and services, paying bills, ensuring categorical program compliance, managing worker's compensation, controlling inventory, coordinating transportation, running child nutrition services, and overseeing emergency preparedness. The department also oversees warehousing, information technology, and facilities. The Business Services Department is responsible for keeping the books and accounts in proper order in compliance with state and federal regulations. The summer is an important time as final budgets are developed in June and the books on the previous fiscal year are closed in July.

The Personnel Department is responsible for overseeing and carrying out functions related to staffing, including hiring, transfers, layoffs and termination of employees. The department also makes sure personnel practices are followed, personnel records are kept, health and fringe benefits are properly provided, and personnel policies and regulations are aligned with current education and labor codes.

Our district office staff and administration provides a high quality of service in a number of necessary areas, and operates in a very lean manner. I will continually look for ways to save money in these services without cutting corners in a way that will harm district operations.

District's Straw Budget

The latest analysis of the district's budget crisis over the next two years pegs the 2-year deficit at just over $10 million. To put this in perspective, in order to save $4.8 million per year without any cuts to services or layoffs of employees, each employee in the district would have to agree to take a 10.6% pay cut. (Each 1% of district salary is equal to $472,000.)

Absent such a concession, the district has presented to the Board a proposal that includes cuts and changes that would reduce $8.3 million, which would still leave the district more than $1.6 million in the hole after the 2011-2012 year. The district is required by October to develop an interim budget to present to the state that shows how the budget will be balanced over the subsequent 2 years, ahd must pass a 2010-2011 budget by the end of June.

The list of proposed cuts presented at the April 20 Board meeting did not contain any surprises. It was a compilation of choices presented at all the budget hearings, committee meetings, and public meetings, after taking into account the feedback from all the various constituencies.

The biggest ticket item on the proposed list is increasing class size (24:1 K-3 year 1, 26:1 K-3 year 2, 32:1 4-8), which would save $3.4 million over two years. Reducing the work year for teachers by 2 days each year would save $740,000. The savings from retiring teachers nets $300,000 per year. The district is proposing savings of $640,000 by reducing the number of couselors paid for out of the general fund. The district's proposed list of cuts would result in savings of nearly $6.5 million from certificated employees (teachers). Most of these savings could only occur if they are agreed to by the teachers' union.

Proposed cuts to classified staff include a reduction of 1.5 people in the business office, a cut of one case facilitator, and reduced hours for school clerks and media techs (1 less hour per day), plus a 10-day shorter work year for school clerks and school secretaries.

The Board will be discussing these proposed reductions and any other options that may be available to the district this week at our special board meeting on Wednesday, April 28. While the discussion will not be interactive with the public, those who are interested are welcome to attend the meeting and listen to what will surely be a lively discussion.

Rescinding the Pink Slips

In order to preserve the flexibility needed to balance the budget and comply with state laws regarding reduction in teaching staff, the district distributed over 80 layoff notices to teachers in early March, long before we were able to decide on issues like class size. Earlier this week, hearings were held for teachers that are still on the list of potential layoffs. Each teacher on the list is entitled to an administrative hearing to verify that their seniority position is proper.

Fortunately, as final decisions on class size are coming into focus through negotiations with our teachers and the number of retiring teachers is becoming known, the district has been able to rescind 64 of the layoff notices. There are still 22 positions in danger as we are forced to consider larger class sizes next year. As further decisions on budget priorities are made in the next 2 months, many of these 22 teachers will be able to retain their positions as well. It is a testament to the good fiscal management of the district that we continue to make it through these bad budgetary years with relatively few layoffs.

For a complete description of the pink slip process and an explanation of why so many pink slips were distributed in the first place, see my previous post on the subject.

School Facilities Upgrades

The Berryessa Union School District has been upgrading and replacing all the school roofs, HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) systems, fire alarm systems, irrigation systems, and landscaping, plus repainting all the schools. The money for these renovations comes from a bond measure passed early in the decade. UPDATE: The bond money has all been spent and the remainder of the projects are being paid for from money received for the sale of our Flickinger property.

The schools in the Berryessa School District are all more than 30 years old. All the roofs need to be replaced in order to fix drainage issues. New roofing materials that are energy efficient and comply with Title 24 requirements are being used. At some of our schools, buckets are used during the rainy season to collect rain leaking into classrooms and hallways. At others, workers have found dry rot in the roofs that means the rain is damaging the buildings' infrastructure.

The HVAC systems that have not yet been upgraded are mostly original equipment from when the schools were built. They are very old and ineffcient. New systems will conserve energy and allow for control by an energy management system.

A few years ago, satellite images of Berryessa allowed for easy identification of our schools, as many of the fields were brown all summer long. This is because many of the irrigation systems were inoperable and have not worked for years. As a result, school fields are unusable. The lack of maintenance means that gophers have taken over, making the fields hazardous for our students. We are replacing all these fields in order to provide safe play areas and enhance our physical education programs. The work will also enhance the visual appeal of our schools.

The project work began in 2004. So far, 10 of the schools have had their roofing/HVAC completed. Three projects remain. Northwood and Cherrywood are scheduled to be done this summer. Piedmont is scheduled for the summer of 2011. The grounds work is underway at the last two schools, Vinci Park and Northwood. In addition, Ruskin's fire alarm system will be upgraded this year and Northwood will be painted in 2011.

The projects scheduled for fiscal year 2009-10 are budgeted to cost $3.79 million. In total, the remaining projects will cost more than $7 million. For those of you who are budget wonks, these projects are being paid for out of Fund 40, which currently has a balance of $8.7 million. Much of the remaining Fund 40 money is earmarked to help pay for the technology upgrade the district implemented this past year. Another portion of the money is used to pay for some of the district's maintenance staff.

The money in Fund 40 is capital money that by state law cannot be used for general fund spending. (UPDATE: This money came from the sale of the Flickinger property.) The state for one year allows school districts to transfer money out of Fund 40 to help bridge budget gaps. If we were to decide to cancel projects and use the money for our general fund, it may be years before additional capital money is available for these projects without asking the voters to support another bond issue.