Morgan Hill school district officials left a state budget
workshop in Sacramento with an arsenal of financial tools
– but with still just an idea of how big the battle ahead of
them is.
SACRAMENTO
Morgan Hill school district officials left a state budget workshop in Sacramento with an arsenal of financial tools – but with still just an idea of how big the battle ahead of them is.
The state budget crisis – now with $42 billion deficit expected for this year alone, including about $6.3 billion in education – has produced the same unsavory set of options for education that are typical in budget crunch times: transferring money from usually restricted funds, lowering the reserve, borrowing from the county treasurer, reducing the school year, class size increases and layoffs.
The district has seen a crisis like this before, says sixth-year Trustee Mike Hickey. There’s just one major difference.
“The numbers are bigger,” Hickey said.
Morgan Hill Unified School District has already cut $3 million from the current year’s budget, resulting in 17 layoffs, mostly custodians and other support staff. Mid-year cuts are almost guaranteed to be between $2.6 and $5.2 million.
But that’s nothing compared to next year – when the cost-of-living adjustment from the state will be nil while costs stay the same or go up. For example, while raises are unlikely, previously negotiated step-and-column pay increases will still happen.
So what are the options?
“It’s likely that the things you’ll have to do will be visible to the community,” Michelle Huntoon, Associate Vice President of School Services of California, told a group of 400 education officials from Northern California, including Hickey and Superintendent Alan Nishino, at the Sacramento Convention Center this afternoon during a workshop on how the governor’s proposals for the 2009/10 state budget would affect education statewide.
Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Bonnie Tognazzini and Loreen Dow of the district’s finance department joined another 800 officials at an earlier session of the workshop, hosted by education liaison organization School Services of California, Inc.
One of the more unusual measures included in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2009/10 budget proposal is to allow flexibility when using categorical funds, or funds meant for a specific purpose such as adult education. That way, districts like Morgan Hill Unified could temporarily use that money towards basic operating costs, like salaries.
But district officials can’t hang their hat on that idea just yet. For one thing, the proposal hasn’t been passed by the necessary two-thirds of the Legislature. For another, the state hasn’t laid out which categorical funds would be on the table for the district to “get creative” with.
Money towards federally funded programs would not be “flexible.” Other exempt programs include California Children and Families First, or Proposition 10, Quality Education Investment Act and the Special Education Mandate Settlement.
Programs not yet named – and therefore, still safe – are grants that pay for counselors and music and bilingual programs.
Hickey expressed frustration that the district already cut to the bone five years ago in similar circumstances, and hasn’t had time to build the district back up to a level where it’s easy to make cuts to programs that are unnecessary, he said. These cuts will be felt.
“We prioritized,” Hickey said of the cuts six years ago. “We went all the way down (to the basics). We’ve done this drill, and now we don’t have all the waste we had before.”
Hickey is referring to the 2002/03 school year’s cuts, which totaled $3.4 million and layoffs for dozens of support staff and three teachers and threatened the district’s sports program.
The district’s recent cuts were almost the same level. Next year, district officials are expecting the worst year yet.
The governor’s proposal, on the other hand, mandates cuts by withholding funding but allows districts to decide their own fate.
Nishino was all for having this leverage.
Nishino said one of the first things he would look at to solve next school year’s budget problem is the K-3 class size reduction program, which Morgan Hill participates in but which costs the district up to $200,000. He’ll also postpone textbook adoption for Language Arts, which would normally be due this year but under the proposal, could be postponed.
Hickey said despite the bad news, he’s feeling “pretty comfortable” with the district’s position.
“I have confidence in our leadership team,” he said. “We will get through this.”
Nishino said there were two reasons to attend the Sacramento workshop. The first was to gather ideas for what to do. The second is to spend the time in the state capitol wisely, by meeting with state Assemblymen Abel Maldonado and Bill Monning as well as state Superintendent of Schools Jack O’Connell tomorrow morning.
“Until they pass the budget, we don’t know what we’re doing,” Nishino said. “We have all these ideas, but we don’t know which one is going to come through.”
