Emboldened by budget committee members who took issue with their
ideas being taken off the chopping block and enlightened by
teachers and parents, the Morgan Hill school board threw back a
budget proposal that some trustees felt had been presented as a
”
done deal
”
Tuesday night.
Emboldened by budget committee members who took issue with their ideas being taken off the chopping block and enlightened by teachers and parents, the Morgan Hill school board threw back a budget proposal that some trustees felt had been presented as a “done deal” Tuesday night.
Morgan Hill Unified School District officials estimate a $3.7 million general fund shortfall for the 2009-10 school year, making for a grand total of about $9 million in cuts over this 18-month period.
On Tuesday night, during a regularly scheduled board meeting that took place at Britton Middle School and was attended by more than 200 parents, teachers and district staff, administrators presented a series of cuts for next year that would total $3.1 million. They included consolidating Burnett Elementary School into P.A. Walsh Elementary School, restructuring special education’s speech division – much to the chagrin of at least three speech pathologists in attendance – and increasing kindergarten class sizes, laying off custodians, clerks, and librarians.
Adding a two-day furlough at a savings of $260,000 a day would almost reach the $3.7 million mark.
However, because all these cuts don’t total the amount needing cut, trustees were frustrated.
“I have nothing to choose between,” Trustee Julia Hover-Smoot said. “It’s being proposed as a done deal. It’s like there’s no point in my being here. If you can make the decision without me, then what am I here for?”
Hover-Smoot said she wants options.
“So we can trade one thing off for another thing where we feel our money might best be used,” she said. “As it is, there’s no flexibility here. We as a board vote, we need something we get to choose between. It’s terribly important.”
Trustee Peter Mandel agreed, noting that the state is granting individual districts with local control for a reason.
“Every community is going to have different priorities,” he said. “What we’re trying to do here is get the best input we have to reflect the values of our community, more of x and less of y. That’s our role to bring that to bear, and we haven’t seen those choices yet.”
If district officials don’t know where to look, attending parents gave them a few starting points. One parent asked why they haven’t switched all their lights to energy-saving incandescent bulbs; another wanted the pools to be heated with solar power.
Deputy Superintendent Bonnie Tognazzini reassured the board that there were more decisions to come, but that wasn’t much consolation to a board faced with approving 38 pink slips to teachers Tuesday night – in time for today’s delivery deadline.
According to California’s education code, certificated employees like teachers must be notified that they could be laid off by March 13. Then, teachers who will be laid off receive a final notice May 14. Classified employees – or custodians, teacher aides and other Service Employees International Union members – will receive pink slips by April 29. For them, the pink slips serve as the final notice.
For Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers Union President Donna Ruebusch, who served on the district’s nine-member budget committee, holding a budget hearing three days before the notification deadline was a sign that the district officials were not listening to the community they serve or the trustees elected to represent that community. She took even greater issue with the fact that not a single administrator in the district office will be handed a pink slip today.
“It ties the hands of the district, and as of (today), it’s too late,” she said. “What came forward was exactly what they talked about at cabinet meetings. So why were we drug to eight hours of meetings?”
Specifically, budget committee members including Ruebusch and Ann Sobrato High School teacher Theresa Sage said two of their preferred recommendations – to cut a half-time assistant principal and a full-time administrator in Educational Services – were notably left out of the presentation to the board.
Assistant to the Superintendent Michael Johnson said his department already shared in cuts last year, when two workers left and were not replaced.
“I appreciate Donna and Theresa reminding us that we need to cut across the board,” Johnson said. “And indeed educational services, in the first wave of cuts, we contributed.”
But Ruebusch said these don’t count as cuts if the workers weren’t laid off. Also, she said that while teachers and classified employees are being staffed at minimum levels, Johnson’s department enjoys one more staff person than they had six years ago under similar budget constraints.
Johnson said his department has the difficult and important task of coordinating between all the schools and teachers and the state and federal government.
“That is so crucial, that all 15 schools comply with state and federal requirements. It means that we are potentially or can be under sanction of the federal government, or face civil litigation” if the district is not in compliance.
Ruebusch disagreed.
“(Teachers) live and die by accountability. It’s our name next to student achievement, not the district office. We don’t need to be somehow herded to know what our job is,” she said.
