Of the $1.6 million in staff cuts the district made,
almost $900,000 is from teacher layoffs.
Board officials agreed to hold another meeting when the
state adopts its budget and when federal stimulus money comes in to cushion
immediate cuts.
Superintendent Paul Turnbull said stimulus money would go
toward rescinding pink slips to some teachers. But Turnbull said he’s not
holding his breath.
“I’ve heard for three months in a row that it will be
coming on Tuesday, and the Tuesday’s keep coming and going,” he told the
Journal. “So we can’t take the risk of bringing people back until we have the
money available.”
The state budget is required by law to adopt its budget
by June 30; however, last year’s budget wasn’t completed until 85 days into the
state’s fiscal year.
Coming as no surprise was a collective nod by the board
to approve the Music Boosters’ request for permission to raise funds to save
the school’s music program from the chopping block. Superintendent Paul
Turnbull had said if $15,000 could be raised and donated by June 15, before the
June 23 school board meeting, the funds could be appropriated into the budget
and the program could remain.
Turnbull said the district will provide two sections of
music and use the $15,000 to fund the third section. Any additional money
donated beyond $15,000 will be saved for the 2010–11 school year. Turnbull said
funding for the program past that year would depend on the state’s fiscal
condition.
“The most important thing is that the board and
administration are fully behind music, and no matter what, we’ll find a way to
make it happen,” he said.
No
raise for faculty
The board also approved in a 4-1 vote, with board member
Jeff Little dissenting, the district’s new collective
bargaining agreement with its teachers’ union. Changes to the contract — which
expires on June 30, 2010 — include a zero percent raise for the Faculty
Association and a decrease of $1,200 per employee per year for health benefits.
Turnbull noted that though there is a decrease in the
agreement, the district is paying each teacher $6,556 above the contracted
minimum requirement for benefits.
“In the worst economic times since the Great Depression,
the teachers are receiving the same level of pay, plus they’re getting a
continued bonus over and above the contracted minimum,” Turnbull said.
During public comment, a handful of parents decried the
layoffs and the increase in average classroom size.
“I think size of classroom matters, and that should be a top priority,” said one parent. “I’ve
seen a classroom of 28 or 30 kids. It’s really easy to get lost in that. Adding
teachers to make smaller classrooms would be at the very top of my priority.”
She also said the district should
make it easier to allow parents to become involved in the school to help fill
the gap left by teacher layoffs.
“We have had two sons come through
here,” she said. “I came to this high school right out of these feeder schools.
I was a gung-ho parent that had always been involved, that was always
volunteering, and I came here and offered services, and I was kind of rebuked.
“Now that we’re in tough times, I
think you should really look at the parents out there who don’t feel like
there’s welcoming arms to help, and don’t know where to turn to help, but they
want to. It might be a good time even to get a parent volunteer to organize
some things.”
Budget priorities
Cary McKinnon, wife of Jeff Mckinnon, co-president of the school’s Faculty Association,
sounded unconvinced that the teacher layoffs were necessary to balance the
district’s budget. She questioned ongoing expenditures that went toward the
school’s stadium, professional consultant services, and travel and conferences.
“I looked at the budget in the
agenda packet, and I have question about what priorities are being set,” she
said. “I wonder if the board is really putting the students first. Off all the
factors that impact students most are teachers and the class size.
“Why is there $370,000 in the
general fund being listed for economic uncertainties? Aren’t there some
economic uncertainties now?” she asked, reading from a statement. “Maybe the
rehiring of those teachers would be a good use of these funds. I would like you
to please look hard at this budget before you pass it. … Balancing the budget
on the backs of employees is an emergency measure, and ultimately it is
balancing it on the backs of the students.”
Turnbull has maintained that over
the previous four years, the district developed a deficit primarily based on
increasing staffing and recent construction projects, most notably, the
school’s football field stadium. In the 2005–06 school year,
the district was flush with money from property taxes pouring in from the real
estate boom and hired more teachers. When the economy began to take a dive in
2007, the district found itself with less revenue while also facing the costs
of more than $500,000 a year to cover the salaries and benefits of those
additional teachers.
In 2007, the district took out a
loan — after it twice failed to get general obligation bonds — to renovate the
school’s football field and stadium and to add a science center called the EAST
(Environmental and Spatial Technologies) Plaza, among other projects.
These construction projects are
estimated to cost the district about $400,000 a year for almost two decades,
said board member Bruce Porter, who criticized the spending in an interview
with the Journal.
“Generally, the operating funds are
for teachers and maintenance, and if you go on a major capital or construction
project, then you do it through a bond,” Porter said. “You don’t want to trap yourself
into not having an additional source of revenue for a big project like that. I
believe it was excessive spending on facilities that is causing our current
shortfalls, more so than bringing in too many teachers.”
State budget woes
Turnbull said the biggest crimp on
the district’s viability has been cascading cuts by the state.
The California Department of
Education has deferred payments approaching $1 million to the district for
supplementary programs. Busing, for example, may take a cut of $83,000 next
year.
While state budget unease has left
board members uncertain as to what additional cuts could be made, the district
has been given wiggle room in some areas. The state will allow the district
flexibility in whether and how to use “Tier 3” categorical funds — state
funding dedicated to a specific purpose, such as class size reduction. This
gives the district additional opportunities to move funds around and choose how
to spend its funds.
The worst case scenario, Turnbull
said, would be if the state withheld a significant amount of the money to the
district because it is a Basic Aid district, meaning it gets most of its
funding from property taxes.
Nicole Evenson,
district fiscal coordinator, offered no words of comfort at the budget hearing.
“I would think they shouldn’t … in
no way should it go against property taxes. That’s a locally controlled
resource,” she said. “But I should be honest. There were rumors going around
that people in the Legislature were talking about looking at property taxes and
going after local governments for their taxes.’’
The board decided to maintain a 4.3
percent reserve in the coming years, above the state-mandated 3 percent. This
reserve is the money the district has set aside for economic uncertainties.
Evenson advised the board against tapping its 1.7 percent
special reserve when making spending choices, saying it would be a recipe for
disaster.
“If you’re going to use it to make a
decision to fund something that’s ongoing, you have to be aware that that money
will eventually run out,” Evenson said.
Teacher layoffs
Solvang resident Donna Will, whose
daughter attends the high school, told the Journal that the board should tap
these funds to ensure a suitable teacher-student ratio.
“If the board wants to honor its
obligations to pay off the football field or (to pay) the business manager’s
salary, these do not represent my priorities as a parent, nor as a tax-payer,”
she said. “With California ranking 47th out of 50 states in education, why would
administrators remove quality teachers and quality programs from our schools?”
The district is also struggling with
property tax revenue, which isn’t expected to increase into the next school
year.
Turnbull said the district has been
preparing for this scenario since September.
A spending and hiring freeze was
implemented in October. The board also voted in March to create retirement
incentives for employees 55 years of age and older to offset more layoffs.
Turnbull said he is hopeful that the
cuts the district has made will prevent average class sizes of 40 and prevent a
loss of summer school, extra-curricular programs and other services for
students.
Though the board said it tried to
keep the impacts away from the classroom as it made cuts to balance the budget,
the layoff of 14 teachers will change classroom sizes from an average of 19 to
30.
Natalie Oas, who will be a junior at the high school this
fall, is especially concerned about class size increases. The 15-year-old was
dismayed when she found out about the layoff of her former honor’s English
teacher, Diane Siegal, who found out her position was
terminated the same day she learned she was named Santa Barbara County Teacher
of the Year.
“Mrs. Siegal
and many other teachers deserved to stay because they’re great teachers,” she
told the Journal. “Laying off teachers affects the
teacher-student relationship. When I was in Siegal’s
class, I felt I could go to her for anything, whether it be
about school or something personal. I remember times when she would dedicate
her entire lunch hour for me, if I didn’t understand a grammar concept. Those
are things I wonder would be available when class sizes become larger.”
Turnbull acknowledged that there
aren’t enough quality relationships between adults and students at most high
schools, but said that research has borne out that higher quality teachers and
not class size is the determinant of enhanced student achievement.
“A high quality teacher will
accelerate student achievement from one to two years of academic growth,
whereas poor quality teachers can slow down student achievement and have a
counter effect of up to three years of academic growth,” he said.
Turnbull added that the firing of Siegal was a consequence of state law and union contracts
that require schools who consider layoffs of teachers to look at the most
junior staff.
“I think this is symbolic of some of
the issues that we have in education,” Turnbull said. “When you are having to
layoff somebody because of the amount of time they have put in the classroom
and not because of their skills, I think that undermines the reason why we’re
trying to provide a good education for students on a daily basis.”
Reach Jeremy Foster at
jfoster@syvjournal.com.