Faced with an unprecedented $3.7 million budget shortfall for
the coming school year, Morgan Hill trustees will hear
recommendations tonight on how to cut expenses.
Faced with an unprecedented $3.7 million budget shortfall for the coming school year, Morgan Hill trustees will hear recommendations tonight on how to cut expenses.
Unfortunately, the budget cuts total the $3.7 million, which is not what some members of the Morgan Hill Unified School District Board of Trustees had asked for. Trustees Julia Hover-Smoot, Peter Mandel and Bart Fisher asked for options March 10, after hearing similar recommendations that included closing Burnett Elementary School, increasing class sizes for kindergarten and laying off clerks, librarians and custodians.
Still, though, the recommended cuts leave no wiggle room except for possible one or two furlough days for all district staff and other more complicated-to-calculate measures like “going green” and providing a retirement incentive.
One new recommendation is to use Morgan Hill Redevelopment Agency funds totaling $400,000. The district has received this money from the city since 2002-03 and it typically goes to improve the school buildings. The district has earmarked the $400,000 for 2009-10 to fix leaky roofs at all the campuses; but for one year the district could use it to plug the hole in the district’s budget instead, according to the staff report.
Tonight’s meeting will again be held at Britton Middle School’s auditorium since high attendance is expected.
Board President Don Moody said he thought tonight’s meeting would be more discussion than action.
“There’s too many unanswered questions. It would be different if we were clear that everyone would take a furlough day,” he said, referring to the $260,000 cost-saving measure that has yet to be negotiated with the district’s unions.
Moody listed several cost-saving measures he’d like to see taken off the options list if a furlough were approved, including keeping small classes for kindergarten and third grade and keeping the library aides.
Trustee Julia Hover-Smoot showed more resolve.
“I think we will probably make some good progress,” she said. “I hope so. I hope we’ll be getting to some point of knowing what we’re doing. As long as we can reach the point where there’s an equitable sharing of the pain, we can probably reach agreement.”
This weekend, between 10 and 15 Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers union members passed out 1,200 pink flyers to entice more community members to attend.
The flier pointed out the class size increases, closing an elementary school, special education cuts, and the district’s flexibility spending that could affect adult education, Regional Occupational Programs, Gifted and Talented Education, and High School Exit Exam instructional support, among other programs.
“Silence from the community is seen as agreement. This is your chance to show your concern!” the flyer reads.
For the teachers, the proposed cuts are not equitable, with the administration saving their jobs in the district office over teachers’ jobs. Union president Donna Ruebusch said saving a district office job over a teacher’s job would be an unprecedented move, referring to a purported increase in staff in the Educational Services Department while teacher and support staff layoffs are imminent. She also took issue with the proposed furlough days.
“It’s true that they would save money. But I’m not going to be kidded that we’re to give up our hard-earned pay when administrators continue to get raises and expand,” she said, referring to Superintendent Alan Nishino’s contractual 3 percent raise, which he accepted in the fall after a satisfactory or better review by the board. The personnel reviews are confidential. District officials have countered that teachers get automatic raises as well, through the union’s step system. Ruebusch said the majority of teachers only get raises every five years, and some, like herself, have maxed out and won’t get raises again.
A hot-button issue at the last meeting was the proposal to cut back on the special education department’s speech therapy division, which is already overwhelmed with mandatory meetings and paperwork. The cuts would flood the elementary speech therapists with 40 preschool students.
“Although I have taught special education for 35 years, none of it has been with a preschool population,” Christy Wait said that night. Her caseload is already more than 50 students, with whom she meets between two and four times per week each. Waide noted that she does not have the materials – from the necessary tests to the appropriately sized furniture – to handle these younger students.
Moody said he hasn’t made up his mind on this recommendation either.
“I’m not convinced we can do that,” he said. “I would like to hear more from our district office about that. I haven’t made up my mind.”
