Parents supportive through $1 million reduction effort
Hollister School District is forecasting a budget cut of between
$750,000 to $1 million during the 2006-2007 fiscal year. While the
district has no plans to close schools, the slashing may result in
10 lost jobs within the district.
Superintendent Ronald Crates is in the process of meeting with
parent associations and parents throughout the school district to
discuss the district’s financial situation and the educational
programs that currently exist.
Parents supportive through $1 million reduction effort
Hollister School District is forecasting a budget cut of between $750,000 to $1 million during the 2006-2007 fiscal year. While the district has no plans to close schools, the slashing may result in 10 lost jobs within the district.
Superintendent Ronald Crates is in the process of meeting with parent associations and parents throughout the school district to discuss the district’s financial situation and the educational programs that currently exist.
As it stands, the district is not in financial trouble for the current fiscal year, but cannot make the same claim for the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 fiscal years. The revenue in the general fund for 2005-2006 is $42,907,988 and the expenditures are $41,980,754. In order to balance the general fund and not cut many of the educational programs in the district, the Hollister Board of Education transferred nearly $2 million from a special reserve fund. The transfer of money is for one-time expenses and the $2 million is not replenished with an ongoing funding source.
As a result, the district received a Qualifying Report letter from County Superintendent Tim Foley last spring. Every district in the state has an obligation, by law, to show a balanced budget for three years. If a district cannot show a balanced budget for one year, it gets a negative report as the first step toward being taken over by the state.
Foley explained at the time that several districts over the past few years have fallen that way, including Oakland, Richmond, Vallejo and Emeryville.
Crates said the problem really comes home in the 2007-2008 school year.
A number of factors have contributed to the district’s financial situation, including decreasing state support and declining enrollments. During the past two years, Hollister has only received 1.8 percent of its revenues from the state. Crates said just turning on the lights and operating school facilities uses up 2 percent of the district budget. In contrast, he said that the high school district receives 120 percent of the per-student funding that the elementary school district receives.
Crates said that enrollments have been decreasing 100 to120 students per year. It would not make sense to close one of the district’s schools, since likely once the building moratorium within the city limits is lifted, enrollments will increase again, but something needed to be done to try to control against a possible deficit.
The parent meetings that began last week have been positive so far, Crates said. Attendance has been good and parents have thus far been genuinely interested in how the district will work to solve the problem.
“The parents have been very gracious for the time and have shown concern about reductions in staff and the effects they could have on the children. They have also talked about kindergarten,” Crates said.
At one recent meeting some of the parents asked about teacher cutbacks. Since one of the ways the district has talked about reducing some of its costs is cutting as many as 10 positions within the district; parents were concerned about teachers. Crates assured his audience that the district has no plans to put any permanent teachers on notice. It is his belief that teachers need job security.
“The sky isn’t falling as long as we don’t approach it that way,” Crates said. “We will have to make some cuts to staff, but it won’t be dramatic.”
Possible cuts may include library personnel, custodians, technology personnel, instructional assistants, administrators, music programs, special education, transportation, health aides, district staff, supplies and materials and increased class sizes.
Foley has every confidence in the Hollister School District.
“We’re confident adjustments can be made including some rather drastic changes to programs, different delivery systems. We’re confident they have every ability to turn things around and the state will not take over.”
The Hollister School District Board of Trustees will not vote on a new budget until June.
