Over 60 teachers, classified and administration employees in the
Hollister School District will be getting letters saying they may
not be rehired next year. The painful decision was reached Tuesday
night by board trustees as a way to save more than $2 million next
school year and begin moving the district out of its budget
problems, which if not dealt with, could end in the district going
bankrupt as early as this fall, said Dr. Michael Slater, interim
finance director at HSD.
Hollister – Over 60 teachers, classified and administration employees in the Hollister School District will be getting letters saying they may not be rehired next year. The painful decision was reached Tuesday night by board trustees as a way to save more than $2 million next school year and begin moving the district out of its budget problems, which if not dealt with, could end in the district going bankrupt as early as this fall, said Dr. Michael Slater, interim finance director at HSD.
“The rubber’s hit the road,” said trustee Dr. Alice Flores. “I know it’s an unpopular decision, but we have chosen to keep the district fiscally solvent.”
Letters of intent stating that certain employees may not be rehired next year will be delivered over the next couple of weeks, as required by the Education Code. The letters are not a guarantee that employees will not be rehired, but they do give the district flexibility if they decide to let some teachers, administrators and classified employees go before school starts next year. Ultimately, no more than 41 positions will be eliminated and the extra notices are just a cushion since the district does not always know how many teachers will leave the school on their own at the end of the school year, said board members.
“Sometimes you have to notice more people than you plan on laying off because … people change their minds, they say they will retire or go away,” said Flores.
The final decision on which positions will be cut will be made by May 15 and will be based on seniority, meaning teachers who were hired most recently will be first in line let go, said Slater. Only those who teach special education, middle school math and science or music, traditionally the most difficult subject areas to fill, will be exempt from the cuts.
Michal Cook, president of Hollister Elementary School Teachers’ Association, HESTA, said that the numbers are projections and don’t reflect the true number of lay-offs that will be made. She added that she felt optimistic about the administration’s promise to look into alternate methods of cutting costs.
“I feel like for the first time everyone is pulling together because this is the only way we can overcome these seemingly insurmountable problems,” she said.
The decision was made after the board was presented with a grim report of its fiscal situation showing that without the cuts the district would face a $2.4 million deficit next year and a $3.6 million deficit in 2006-07. And with only $1.7 million in reserves, it is enough for the state to intervene and take over the eight schools in the district.
“It’s a real sad day, but we have fiscal responsibility also,” said Jan Grist, a seventh-grade teacher at Marguerite Maze Middle and a member of HESTA. “Hopefully the board will find a way to spread out the cuts so it doesn’t affect only teachers.”
Hollister School District has struggled with how to dig itself out of its financial troubles, which is the result of a decline in enrollment and attendance and escalating costs of salaries and benefits, said board members Tuesday night. Enrollment peaked at 6,288 in 2002, but has steadily declined in recent years, according to numbers provided by the San Benito County Office of Education. The decrease resulted in less money for the school, since funding is based on attendance. The district gets $5,875 per child per year from the state.
Employee salaries and benefits have reached 88 percent of total expenses in HSD, although the state average is only 80 percent, according to Slater, who took over in January after long-time financial director Dean Bubar left.
The board will do whatever it takes to not have to implement the cuts, which are a painful last resort, said trustee Dr. Dee Brown.
“Cuts are so devastating and we’ve already done so many of them,” said Brown. Last year, the district cut $2 million from the budget, which resulted in more students per classroom and cuts in transportation, but did not eliminate jobs. The board is contemplating sending a parcel tax to voters which, if passed, would create additional revenue for the embattled district.
There are almost 12,000 parcels, or pieces of land, within the district – properties that have appreciated over the past year, said Brown.
“If these people made $100,000 in the last year on their homes, would they not be willing to pay $100 of it toward schools?” she said.
The district did not anticipate a decrease in enrollment, part of the reason it did not account for it in previous years, said board members.
For nearly a decade, enrollment grew by 4 percent and the district planned a budget consistent with the numbers. But starting in 2003, enrollment dropped and the district found itself facing a budget it could not fully fund, said Margie Barrios, who has served on the board since the mid-80s and is the current president.
“Unfortunately we set our budget to reflect that growth in anticipated revenues and we didn’t get the money we anticipated. That was a major, major negative in regards to our budget,” she said.
The increased cost of medical benefits as well requirements by the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which created mandates it did not fully fund, also contributed to the fiscal problem, said Barrios.
