Trustees and members of the public who attended Saturday
’s special School Board meeting learned the Morgan Hill School
District could be facing a $3.2 million deficit next year.
Trustees and members of the public who attended Saturday’s special School Board meeting learned the Morgan Hill School District could be facing a $3.2 million deficit next year.
The deficit is largely the result of Gov. Gray Davis’ proposed education cuts – $5.2 billion – to help offset his estimated $34.6 billion budget shortfall.
“This is a significant amount of resources for the district to lose,” McKennan said Monday, referring to proposed state education budget cuts. “The board will continue to have discussions around the topics we covered Saturday.”
The meeting, which was continued to Monday night, was a workshop for board members, especially new board members, to acquaint themselves with the current budget and what the future might hold. Deputy Superintendent Bonnie Branco gave a thorough presentation of the current budget.
Board President Tom Kinoshita said he was pleased the meeting was so well-attended. When the 8 a.m. meeting began, it was standing-room only. Teachers, principals, parents and Live Oak civics students filled the room and spilled out into the foyer. The crowd diminished as the four-hour meeting wore on, but approximately 20 people stayed until the meeting adjourned at noon.
“This is good information to get out,” Kinoshita said. “A good perspective on our particular situation, as well as globally, the state’s predicament. More than anything we needed to get this message out to the public, so we can all see what we’re dealing with.”
The timing of the workshop was also important because the board will have to make decisions on where to make its own cuts.
Many of the parents on hand lobbied the board and administration not to make cuts in the elementary music program that feeds young musicians into award-winning bands at the middle schools and Live Oak.
“These are decision that they must make in the next few weeks,” McKennan said. “We have a statutory deadline of March 15 to let our certificated employees know if we will be cutting positions. The significant thing is that we are talking about employees that are valuable to us and we want to let them know as quickly as possible. We are also looking at a deadline with our classified employees.”
Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers President Mary Alice Callahan and Service Employees International Union Chapter President Bev Walker both had advice for board members.
“Every program and department of our district is important,” Walker said. “Look at the small ticket items as well as the large … We are told ‘We don’t cut people we cut programs.’ Well, people are a part of the programs. Let me ask you to make your decisions soon. Employees need to be able to plan for the future.”
Callahan echoed the need for speed.
“There is an urgency here,” she said. “The teachers are very fearful. I am asked every day if there will be layoffs.”
She also told trustees they need to have a strategy in place soon.
“There’s not $3 million extra in the budget,” she said. “We have to look at compiling a $3 million priority pile to cut from (as the state government finalizes its budget). We have to go from the virtual world of numbers to the real world of laying people off.”
Callahan said she realizes what a difficult process the district faces.
“We don’t get to wrangle for three, four, five months,” she said, referring to the fact that state budget discussions go on beyond the end of the fiscal year in June. “We have to meet our deadline, even if we don’t have their numbers. It’s quite a juggling act.”
The state budget typically goes through a “May revise” and then should be voted on in June or July. Last year, the budget was not approved until August, and this year, it will likely be September, Branco said.
The district has already begun its own budgeting process.
“The leadership team got together for a pre-meeting to establish the same sort of thing we did in the workshop,” said Branco. “On Feb. 11 and 12, we’ll meet with the performance-based budget committee. Normally, we do this in several meetings over several months. But this year, we kind of incorporated it all in two days.”
Kinoshita said it is important that the public understand the budgeting process.
“These decisions aren’t made in a vacuum,” he said. “There is a whole broad base of issues and its all in how we prioritize. Every decision we make is going to be an unpopular one to some person or group. Every program is worthwhile and helps in the big picture, but it becomes very subjective in the long run. My view is that we keep closest to the classroom and work away from that, keep what supports student learning and keep our focus on that.”
