Although the financial outlook for area schools still looks
”
doom and gloom,
”
according to a local school official, the San Benito High School
District ended its hiring freeze this week to allow replacements
for positions to be vacated by resignations and retirements after
the 2002-2003 school year.
Although the financial outlook for area schools still looks “doom and gloom,” according to a local school official, the San Benito High School District ended its hiring freeze this week to allow replacements for positions to be vacated by resignations and retirements after the 2002-2003 school year.
The district’s Board of Trustees voted 4-0, with Trustee Judy Rider absent, to lift the hiring freeze at its meeting Wednesday, a decision officials called a necessary “formality” and “standard practice” because of several expected resignations. The end of the policy takes effect July 1.
The board enacted the hiring freeze in December when the state startled school officials throughout California by imposing mid-year budget cuts. Aside from the hiring freeze, the SBHSD had also cut about $400,000 from its $22 million budget, according to Steve DeLay, the district’s director of finance and operations.
“In December, the information came from the state to be prepared for doom and gloom,” SBHSD Jean Burns Slater said. “This district was very proactive and prepared for cuts.”
The move Wednesday gives administrators more flexibility for next school year, officials said.
“We need to be prepared in the event that we have several teachers resign,” Trustee Shelly Donati said. “We need to be able to fill those positions.”
Although lifting the hiring freeze is viewed as necessary to fill several potential vacancies, it doesn’t signal the SBHSD becoming aggressive in its hiring practices anytime soon, Slater said. Some positions that will likely become open may not be filled for 2003-2004, she said.
“We’re looking at less teachers for next year,” Slater said. “We’re not replacing everyone, but we’re going to certainly replace key people. We’ll be a little bit leaner.”
Slater mentioned, for instance, plans to hire a new director of special education for 2003-2004.
The board will remain “conservative in our approach,” said Trustee Bill Tiffany. The district will hire for current positions that must be filled, he said. Beyond that, additional hiring would be based on available funding.
“I don’t believe the administration is going to do anything until they have a better sense of what the (state) budget is going to look like,” Tiffany said.
Slater said the board’s actions in December to enact the hiring freeze were less drastic than in other California school districts, many of which imposed employee layoffs. Essentially, the SBHSD policy suspended hiring of mid-year replacements, she said.
The Benicia School District in Contra Costa County announced this week large increases in fees for students participating in sports programs – in some sports as much as $400 per student – to offset the effects of budget cuts. The district said, however, that it would make available financial aid to students in low-income families.
The SBHSD’s decision comes one week before the widely anticipated release of Gov. Gray Davis budget revision, a document that should give administrators a better notion about available funding.
In January, Davis announced the state’s $34.6 budget deficit for the 2003-2004 fiscal year. At that time, schools were expected to suffer a significant reduction in funding – an outlook that hasn’t changed since, Slater said.
“We’re all anxious to look at the May revise,” she said.
Trustee Stephen Hailstone added, “It weighs heavily on everything we’re going to do – very heavily.”
Even after Davis releases his budget revision, the outlook for funding may not be altogether clear before the board devises the district’s 2003-2004 budget, officials said.
“It’s difficult because we’re obligated to build a budget over the next couple months,” Tiffany said. “It seems pretty unlikely that the State of California will tell us our revenues within that same time frame.”
Regarding the budget in the long run, Slater said, “It doesn’t sound like there will be a turnaround in the next year or two. We may be pretty lean for quite a few years.”
