It’s bad news and worse news for Community Colleges and K-12 districts – the latter faring much better than anticipated – after Gov. Jerry Brown announced Tuesday he’s slashing $328 million from elementary and secondary schools.
That’s a rosier picture than $1.35 billion; the cut forecasted Nov. 16 by the Legislative Analyst’s Office.
Meanwhile, following a $10 spike in per-unit credits from $26 to $36 in fall 2011, Gavilan College students will have to shell out $46 per unit come summer 2012.
On the other hand, the Gilroy Unified School District is only looking at a $13 loss in funding per average daily attending student (ADA). It’s a stark difference from the previously estimated $189 ADA loss; a blow GUSD braced for by approving a 4 percent pay cut through eight furlough days scheduled at the end of this year.
The midyear triggers will also cut away 50 percent of GUSD’s home-to-school transportation funding.
It remains unseen, however, whether busing will be eliminated completely, or if teachers will get back some – or all – of their pay cut (which is closer to a 10 percent hit, when rising healthcare costs are factored in).
Until GUSD has a chance to plug in new figures from the state, grasp the localized effect and review the finer points pending an upcoming Jan. 12 Board of Education meeting, GUSD Superintendent Debbie Flores said she doesn’t have specifics on the impact to busing or furloughs.
“The furlough days are negotiable and changes in the number of days would need to be negotiated,” she wrote in an email Monday, when queried if GUSD would be able to reinstate some, or all, of its eight furlough days, which will save the district $1.8 million.
The governor’s more tame K-12 cut of $328 million is comprised of $79.6 million from per-student funding – plus a one-time, $248 million bite out of home-to-school transportation. This equates to $531,845, or half, of GUSD’s transportation funding according to Rebecca Wright, assistant superintendent of GUSD Business Services.
“It’s hard to say ‘good news,’” said Wright, of the $13 ADA loss versus the previous $189 cut they were anticipating. “When they chop you off at the ankle instead of the knee, you’re supposed to think that’s good news?”
As it is, Wright said the district wasn’t able to make its federally mandated 3 percent reserve, even before the triggers.
The cancellation of three staff development days and five instructional days appears in pay reductions and is spread evenly across eight paychecks. This commenced in November and will last through June 2012.
Paul Winslow, English teacher and Department Chair at Christopher High School, thinks the chances of GUSD handing back the entire eight furlough days in this academic year are slim.
The district already submitted its budget for 2011-12, so “a change in the calendar would cause chaos when it comes to graduation at the high school level,” he pointed out. “The bigger question is what will be done next year.”
Likewise, Flores said fiscal planning hinges on the Jan. 10 release of the 2012-13 state budget, which provides critical information GUSD needs to compile its multi-year projections.
“We can’t just look at this school year only,” Flores explained.
As for GUSD’s transportation program, it was already chopped in half at the beginning of the school year when GUSD cut six of its 12 bus routes, $225,000 from its transportation budget and dissolved positions for five drivers, one dispatcher and one instructor.
It now caters to 540 of the 1,100 students it served last year.
Because of the $248 million loss in transportation funding, the district will have to offset the resulting $531,845 deficit by dipping into unrestricted funds, according to Wright.
For 2011-12, she said GUSD’s transportation operating costs are $666.87 per student. This does not include legally required transportation for special education students; an expense of $5,612.95 per student.
“To tell you the truth, when I tell colleagues that we still offer buses, they are amazed,” said Winslow. “Most people can’t believe that we still offer transportation since it is such a large encroachment on the general fund.”
Regarding the effect on GUSD’s busing program now that half of its funding will be yanked, Flores said charging for transportation has been discussed in the past and would have to be addressed in-depth by the school board. She could not speak to the possibility of busing being eliminated completely.
The Morgan Hill Unified School District has been charging parents for transportation for 16 years. The cost for one student to ride the bus annually is $310, with rates dipping if the student qualifies for free and reduced lunch. The Aromas-San Juan Unified School District has been charging high school students for transportation for three years, while the Hollister Unified School District said in August it is looking at levying charges.
This week’s flurry of financial updates rides the wake of $980 million in mid-year cuts triggered Tuesday, which will go into effect as state revenues fall $2.2 billion short of the summer 2011 fiscal forecast.
“The state cannot give what it does not have,” resolved Gov. Brown in a live press interview posted to his website. “You either cut, or you tax. There’s no third way.”
Brown said he plans to give the public an opportunity to vote for an additional $7 billion in tax revenue on a November 2012 ballot; part of which would help fund schools.
For now, community colleges are left to shoulder $102 million of the trigger cuts. Of this, $30 million of that will be treated as a one-time deficit; the other $72 million will be permanently reduced.
For Gavilan, this equates to a $480,000 loss in state funding; or, on a more personified level, funding for 108 full-time students. Gavilan currently serves about 6,500 full and part-time students.
Gavilan College President Steve Kinsella said one reason the state hikes community college unit fees in the first place is “to artificially push down the demand, so they don’t have to pay for it,” he said. “It’s pretty twisted.”
Once unit fees increase, he added, they’re not likely to go back down.
Because of this, “the college will continue to make adjustments to the upcoming semester’s class schedules to bring our enrollment down and closer to the enrollment level the state will pay for,” Kinsella said.
In fall 2011, Gavilan was already serving 300 more full-time students than what is funded for by the state. The spring and summer semesters will see small adjustments to class schedules, Kinsella said.
He is also wary rising unit costs will persuade students to take fewer classes.
“That’s the typical behavior that we find, which is why we’re very concerned when we have fee increases like that,” Kinsella said. “It drives students away.”
