In their second swing at next year
’s budget, Morgan Hill Board of Education trustees slashed
$1,031,152 Monday night.
In their second swing at next year’s budget, Morgan Hill Board of Education trustees slashed $1,031,152 Monday night.
The district is facing a deficit of approximately $1.5 million, due, according to district officials, to declining enrollment. The district also stands to lose approximately $1.7 million in state funds because of cutbacks due to the state budget deficit. The total impact to the district could be $3.2 million for the upcoming fiscal year.
The district Business Office recommends the board cut $3.4 million.
The cuts made Monday, which came from a variety of departments, were on a recommended “consensus list” from the performanced-based budgeting committee, consisting of district administrators and representatives from each of the two employee bargaining units in the district.
Trustee Del Foster made the motion to approve the reductions, which he amended by dropping the recommended elimination of one district nurse position, which would have been a cost savings of $54,615.
The vote was 5-2, with Trustees Shellé Thomas and Amina Khemici voting against the motion.
“I don’t agree to that.I really want to work with the Federation, but I guess I’m going to have to work with you,” Thomas said to the other trustees.
Thomas referred to a reduction plan put together by Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers President Mary Alice Callahan and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Bev Walker, with help from their members.
Some highlights of the plan that differ from the consensus list include $9,000 more in cuts to transportation; 20 percent in cuts across the board to District Office budgets, instead of 10-15 percent; $100,000 in special education cuts, instead of $169,000; and five custodial cuts instead of four.
The plan received an enthusiastic round of applause from the standing-room-only crowd.
Khemici and Thomas also voted against Foster’s amended motion because they wanted to pull the cut to district counselors from the consensus list. The cut is .8 FTE, which stands for 80 percent of a full teaching equivalent. Assistant Superintendent Denise Tate, who is in charge of Human Resources for the district, said the district currently has 6.5 counselors, and the .8 loss would likely come at the middle school level.
“We would staff to our contract ratio, which is 700-1,” she said. “At Martin Murphy we are projecting at just over 800 (enrollment), and we anticipate Britton having 1,150, which would be not quite two full-time counselors. It’s possible that we have a counselor who is at Britton four days a week and one day at Martin Murphy … We would maximize available staff.”
Several of the Live Oak High counselors attended Monday’s meeting and made emotional appeals to the board to pull the 80 percent counseling position off the list of cuts.
“Right now, I’m carrying 900 kids,” said Tim McGuire. “I’ve been here eight or nine years, and this is the most despondent I’ve ever been … You (trustees) need to come down to Live Oak, come down to Martin Murphy and Britton, and see what a secondary school is.”
McGuire also mentioned Live Oak losing counselor Susan Lewis, who died in February after a long battle with cancer.
During last year’s round of budget cuts, a counselor position was also on the consensus list; Martin Murphy counselor Adrienne Medalie compiled a two-page list of her duties and successfully petitioned the board, along with many parents, to remove the position from the list.
The 80 percent position was left on the consensus list of cuts this year.
The list was pared down from an original consensus list that the board first took a look at during their regular meeting March 10. The cuts from the original list totaled $1.7 million.
Trustees requested some of the items be pulled off the list for more information and discussion, although Board President Tom Kinoshita said he wanted to “respect the process” that created the consensus and approve the entire list without modifications.
Looking at the list in its second configuration on Monday, Trustee Mike Hickey appeared to agree.
“You have to trust at some point the decisions of those that have worked on this together,” said Trustee Mike Hickey. “To sit there and tell all these people that I know better would be very arrogant on my part. I’m not going to throw away all the work these people have done.”
The cuts that remained on the list and were approved Monday include: cuts in transportation by moving some bus stops, eliminating after-school activity uses unless the school pays for them and laying off one mechanic; loss of 80 percent of a certificated librarian, which would be the position at Martin Murphy that was budgeted but never filled; special education cuts including a business office technician, the reconfiguration of assessment period and two instructional aides; staffing to the class size reduction ratio at the ninth grade level, which is 20:1; reducing District Office services, including layoff of one buyer, reducing hours the office is open to the public and reducing board communication; and eliminating four custodial positions (one has already submitted a resignation and three have applied for retirement) which will result in a reduction of services and sharing of services by some schools.
During the discussion of his motion Monday night, Foster cited board policy regarding the length of the meeting. At 10:30 p.m., the meeting had already lasted three-and-a-half hours, so Foster made a motion to continue the meeting until Tuesday night. The motion was approved, 5-2, and then the trustees voted on the original motion on the floor, Foster’s amended consensus list before the meeting was continued.
Tuesday night, trustees discussed some of the items pulled off the original consensus list during the March 10 meeting.
In particular, they looked at high school and middle school extra-curricular activities, which have been listed as cuts of $30,000 and $12,000. Live Oak Principal Rich Knapp mentioned the possibility of cutting freshman sports, but told the board that he was waiting to see what happened with other teams in the Tri-County Athletic League before making final plans.
