After three years of budget cuts, Morgan Hill School District
trustees are in the enviable position of considering which items to
add, rather than slashing positions or programs from next year
’s budget.
After three years of budget cuts, Morgan Hill School District trustees are in the enviable position of considering which items to add, rather than slashing positions or programs from next year’s budget.
Over the last three years, trustees have been forced to cut – mostly because of state budget cuts and, initially, lower enrollment – more than $8 million from the district’s general fund. Classified workers, particularly those in the District Office, were hit especially hard as trustees tried to keep cuts away from the classroom.
“Of course, it’s always better when you don’t have to make people lose their jobs,” Trustee Kathy Sullivan said last week. “That is what feels good about this budget – that we don’t have to get rid of any more positions.”
Instead of looking at cuts this year, trustees will instead consider adding programs from a list put together by the performance-based budget committee comprised of district staff.
Deputy Superintendent Bonnie Tognazzini called the budget “basic” at the May 23 meeting, and recommended that trustees wait for the state budget to be approved before considering the list of recommended “added allocations” the budget committee put together.
“The law requires (the state) adopt theirs by June 30, so it will likely be August,” Tognazzini said during the June 6 meeting. “When they adopt their budget, we’ll bring back the list of recommendations from the committee. We’ll get the budget back in front of you for discussion the first meeting after state adoption.”
Trustees voted unanimously to approve the basic budget during their June 6 meeting. They also voted unanimously to reinstate 20 furlough days for classified employees.
Included in the budget committee’s list of recommendations were health benefit increases and raises for district employees, improving the counseling and PE staffing ratios and restoring custodial positions at schools throughout the district.
Considering the possible additions, Sullivan said if she was to chose from the list, she would first look at reinstating jobs.
“My preference would be to backfill those lost positions,” she said. “Our staff has done a really good job of getting things done with less people, but I think if we can renew those positions, it would be a good thing.”
But Sullivan added that she wanted to know more of the financial details.
“We need more information first,” she said. “We have been presented with the list, but what we haven’t seen is what amount of money is associated with the list… We need to know how much we have to spend and how much these rankings are going to cost us.
“And not just for this year, but in the future. We may have enough money for this year, but we have to be fiscally responsible for years to come. Some of these items, like pay increases, you have to be able to support beyond the first year… I want to see what the prices are, but I am a little prejudiced in that I would really like to see that people who lost positions are reinstated.”
Tognazzini, who leads the business services department, said projected district staffing for next year includes 429 teachers, 224 classified employees and 39 administrators and psychologists, for a total of approximately 692, including “pieces and parts” of different positions or partial positions.
The district builds two extra unfilled teaching positions into its projections each year, Tognazzini said, in order to allow for balancing of classes or a “bubble” of students in one class level.
Trustees will get another look at the budget committee’s list of ranked preferences, Tognazzini said, once the state passes its budget for next year. Price tags will be attached to the items, and trustees should have a better idea of how much money they can afford to spend.
One of the high profile items discussed at several board meetings did not make the budget committee’s list, except as something to look at in the future. At an earlier board meeting, the district’s band directors presented three proposals to improve and protect the existing elementary music program, which has barely survived the cuts in previous years. Trustees had asked that the proposals be considered by the budget committee as they put together their recommendations for next year’s budget.
During their June 6 meeting, trustees questioned staff about the urgency in making decisions on the proposals, all of which would require adding at least one music teacher. Assistant Superintendent Arlene Machado, in charge of human resources, said the district would be better off trying to hire someone sooner rather than later, although she said there would likely be candidates still available when the school year begins in August.
