State budget woes to resonate in local districts
Even with excitement in the air surrounding the beginning of the
school year, a local school official said
”
serious
”
state budget issues are going to be
”
a real challenge for us this year.
”
”
The first day of school is always exciting. The teachers are
prepared and (we’re) anxious for students to come in,
”
said Ron Crates, superintendent with the Hollister School
District.
”
(But) we have some serious state budget issues.
”
State budget woes to resonate in local districts
Even with excitement in the air surrounding the beginning of the school year, a local school official said “serious” state budget issues are going to be “a real challenge for us this year.”
“The first day of school is always exciting. The teachers are prepared and (we’re) anxious for students to come in,” said Ron Crates, superintendent with the Hollister School District. “(But) we have some serious state budget issues.”
For the 2009/10 school year, Crates said the district “is fine.”
“It’s the following year that is going to be very problematic.”
The district used federal stimulus dollars to save positions for this school year but with the loss of those funds and less money coming from the state, next year’s budget problems will be more drastic than this year’s.
The district had already cut 36.5 positions earlier this year – both administrative and teaching positions – and gone through a mandatory four-day furlough.
However, 23 of the 30 teaching positions have been rehired to replace teachers moving or retiring, while the 6.5 administrative positions have not been refilled.
The district “definitely” had to make up a deficit for this school year and all told, the district faced a “$5 million problem.” But more drastic cuts could be made for next year’s school budget.
“There’s going to be serious, serious cuts next year,” Crates said.
Most of the cuts that will be made will be to positions and salaries because they “are all we have left.”
Resources such as materials and supplies aren’t going to be looked at as much because Crates said there are so few dollars being spent on those types of things.
Crates also said other contributing factors to the budget woes of the school district include the state economy, the building moratorium in Hollister and the housing market.
The combination of the moratorium and the slumping housing market has lead to lowered enrollments. Over the past seven or eight years, there have been fewer students and less money for schools.
“That’s a significant loss of revenue,” Crates said.
He added that he didn’t know the current total enrollment at the nine district schools but said it is “basically stable.”
The enrollment for HSD last year was 5,724 at the 10th-day enrollment date and this year, Crates said there will be 150 fewer students at the same point this year.
The last time enrollment went up was before Crates’ tenure as superintendent and was “probably” in 2001 or 2002, he said.
As for class sizes, HSD has staffed for an average student-teacher ratio of 1-to-24 in kindergarten through third-grade classrooms. For the fourth- through eighth-grade classrooms, the average increases to 1-to-34.
While these numbers aren’t too far off from Crates’ preferred class ratios – 1-to-25 in kindergarten through fifth grade and 1-to-30 in fourth through eighth grades – if there is an increase in enrollment and the ratios become bigger, Crates can’t add any more personnel due to a school board directive.
“If we have more kids than we staff (for), I’m not going to be adding staff because of the deficit,” he said. “Board direction, ‘no more people.'”
In the San Benito High School District, Superintendent Stan Rose did not respond to a Pinancle phone message before press time.
Teachers’ union President Mitch Huerta, however, said he believes SBHS budget cuts – precise numbers were not available – will have a noticeable impact this year.
“It’s not status quo,” he said. “It’s not business as usual. The budget cuts are going to affect far beyond the classroom.”
He contended that cuts in education will amount to a decreased investment in the future. As far as the level of impact this year goes, he said, “It’s too early to tell.”
Still, the start of the school year has incited excitement from students and educators, he said.
“I think it’s always positive, and the key is to remain positive.”
Editor Kollin Kosmicki contributed to this report.
