San Benito High School district Superintendent Stan Rose is
encouraging local residents to contact state legislators to
encourage them to vote to put a slew of tax extensions on the
ballot for a special June election.
San Benito High School district Superintendent Stan Rose is encouraging local residents to contact state legislators to encourage them to vote to put a slew of tax extensions on the ballot for a special June election.
“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.
Gov. Jerry Brown has put a March 10 deadline before the legislature to vote on measures that will extend and increase taxes for education – the deadline to submit ballot items is March 11.
“If those are not put to the voters for a decision it is going to effect voters in a really big way,” Rose said. “If that doesn’t happen, then education is going to be hit very, very hard.”
If the ballot measures are not approved by taxpayers in June – or don’t make it onto the ballot at all – the impact will be the loss of at least $350 per student at the high school, according to Rose.
“We are looking at serious reductions of programs,” Rose said. “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.”
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 without the taxes, he might be forced to end the school year in April next year.
“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 in 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.
See an expanded story on the topic in this week’s edition of the Weekend Pinnacle.
