Schools likely to lose $350 per student if proposed measures
fail to make ballot
While Hollister School District Superintendent Gary McIntire and
its trustees waited to see if the state Legislature would approve a
list of ballot measures for a June special election
– to extend and increase taxes with $2 billion going to
education – they had already begun to look at a local tax measure
that may also be on the ballot in June.
”
Last Tuesday, March 1, we held a special meeting to place a
measure on the ballot for a parcel tax within the Hollister School
District,
”
McIntire said.
They were still awaiting a legal determination to see if the
ballot measure could run with the state measures, to save the money
to the district of holding its own special election. The measure is
for a $96 parcel tax for properties within the Hollister School
District boundaries, and would be used to reinstate positions or
programs that have recently been cut, such as computer supervisors,
library technicians, a music teacher and more.
Schools likely to lose $350 per student if proposed measures fail to make ballot
While Hollister School District Superintendent Gary McIntire and its trustees waited to see if the state Legislature would approve a list of ballot measures for a June special election – to extend and increase taxes with $2 billion going to education – they had already begun to look at a local tax measure that may also be on the ballot in June.
“Last Tuesday, March 1, we held a special meeting to place a measure on the ballot for a parcel tax within the Hollister School District,” McIntire said.
They were still awaiting a legal determination to see if the ballot measure could run with the state measures, to save the money to the district of holding its own special election. The measure is for a $96 parcel tax for properties within the Hollister School District boundaries, and would be used to reinstate positions or programs that have recently been cut, such as computer supervisors, library technicians, a music teacher and more.
Districts prepare for cuts
The state budget, however, will determine the long-term consequences for the district. State legislators had until March 10 (after the Pinnacle’s deadline) to approve a set of measures to extend and increase taxes that would benefit schools statewide. If the ballot measures made the deadline, it will be up to voters in June to decide whether local schools lose $350 per student or $19 per student, which McIntire explained the district would lose even without cuts.
“In the very best-case scenario, there will be $19 per pupil less for next year,” McIntire said. “That adds up fairly quickly.”
He estimated without cuts, the district will be short $100,000. But if a slate of tax measures do not make the ballot in June or are not approved by voters, the cut per pupil will be $350, leaving the Hollister School District with an additional $1.9 million shortfall for the 2012-13 fiscal year. The district had already anticipated a $5.8 million shortfall, partly due to the lose of class-size reduction funding, a program that gave schools $1,000 per pupil if they maintained 20-to-1 ratios for teachers to students in grades K-3. McIntire said schools that did not maintain the ratio still received 70 percent of the money under a flexibility program that allowed them to use it for other purposes, but that the state Legislature decided to eliminate it for the 2011-12 school year.
“We know we can’t participate unless we somehow miraculously get some money,” McIntire said. “We would lose all that funding – all of that goes away.”
Extension of flexibility
Gov. Jerry Brown proposed to extend the flexibility with the funding for two more years, but other budget cuts are looming.
“We would benefit from that flexibility,” McIntire said. “But that effect would be negated if the voters don’t approve the temporary extension of those tax measures.”
McIntire explained that his district is preparing for a worst-case scenario. He said he had proposed sending pink slips to 33.5 full-time equivalent certificated positions, including teachers, by the March 15 deadline to notify teachers they may not have a job next year. The district also cut middle school sports mid-year, eliminated a music teacher, and cut positions in the district office such as a receptionist, a business office staff member and a human resources staff member.
“One principal retired last year, and we didn’t fill it,” McIntire said. “We have a structural deficit and we need to correct that.”
Stan Rose, the superintendent of the San Benito High School District, also expected drastic cuts to San Benito County if funding is reduced by $350 per student.
“I have never seen in my almost 38 years now of education a more serious economic circumstance than I am looking at right now,” Rose said.
Rose spent energy this week encouraging voters to push legislators to allow them a chance to decide at the polls.
“If those are not put to the voters for a decision it is going to affect voters in a really big way,” Rose said. “If that doesn’t happen, then education is going to be hit very, very hard. We are looking at serious reductions of programs. It may not happen this next year, but it will happen after that.”
He added that cutting programs can have more of an impact in a rural community than an urban one.
“What happens in districts like ours is when programs are cut and people are let go, it becomes more difficult to bring those programs back than in a large urban area because people go away,” he said. “They literally go away. They move away.”
Shorter school years?
Rose said that in addition to cutting programs, San Benito High School and other districts may be forced to shorten the school year. He said a superintendent at a Bay Area school has said if the cuts go through, he might be forced to end the school year in April next year.
McIntire said the Hollister School District is open for 175 days of instruction, which is the minimum allowed by the state. He explained that in order to lower the number of days of instruction, the Legislature would have to approve a new minimum.
“That conversation has been heard from Sacramento,” McIntire said, noting that most school districts do not support lowering the number of school days to save money. “There are such polarized opinions about how the state is going to deal with its funding short fall … It doesn’t help California schools to regain that stature as the best schools in the nation as we had one time. We are funded near the bottom of most states and we are less likely to gain any ground.”
Rose also predicted dire long-term outcomes if school days are cut.
“The best off we will be is short $350 a student, but it could be even worse than that,” Rose said. “I think it is an impossible situation. We are being asked to compete in a world economy – we are competing for jobs with people from all over the world. It’s a very poor investment in our future if that is the decision we are left to make.”
The San Benito High School District has not started contemplating pink slips – the notice to teachers and staff that they may be laid off for the 2011-12 school year. The deadline for districts to send out the notices is March 15.
“What we are trying to look at and recommend is the idea of riding through this next year regardless of what the decision is at the state level and planning what we must plan for thereafter,” Rose said. “That’s where the issue of the reserves come in.”
He said reserves will help SBHS weather the next year, but after that drastic cuts will be in order again.
