Hollister district approves teacher raise in face of likely
budget cuts
Hollister Elementary School District’s budget picture has not
improved any according to the latest projections, but teachers in
the district will receive a 4 percent cost-of-living increase
retroactive to January 23, 2006.
Although the Hollister School District Board of Trustees still
has $2 million to cut from its 2006-2007 budget, they approved the
district’s elementary teachers’ cost of living increase. But the
message at the end of the meeting was clear
– cuts will be necessary and they will have to come from
somewhere.
Hollister district approves teacher raise in face of likely budget cuts
Hollister Elementary School District’s budget picture has not improved any according to the latest projections, but teachers in the district will receive a 4 percent cost-of-living increase retroactive to January 23, 2006.
Although the Hollister School District Board of Trustees still has $2 million to cut from its 2006-2007 budget, they approved the district’s elementary teachers’ cost of living increase. But the message at the end of the meeting was clear – cuts will be necessary and they will have to come from somewhere.
At the board meeting on March 15, Hollister Elementary School District Superintendent Ron Crates told the trustees that he and the Citizens Action Committee – the group tasked with budget decisions – had done some budget projections.
“It’s no fun talking about budget stuff, I’d rather talk about teaching, but this is necessary,” he joked.
One of the big problems with the budget is that the well is dry, Crates said. By this, he meant there are precious little special reserve funds left. They have only $83,000 in reserves.
The council performed a budget prioritization exercise using the current program/activity cost of $4,089,364. The group was asked to rank unrestricted funds at four levels of expenditure. For the exercise the group was asked to reduce expenditures by $800,000.
One of the areas the exercise looked at was class size. He hears regularly that fourth and fifth grade classrooms are too large, Crates said. The same is true of sixth through eighth grade classes, however he did not tabulate the averages for those grades.
If the district were to reduce class size, for example, to get down to 30 or less students per class in fourth and fifth grades, they would need six additional teachers, Crates estimated. The exercise showed attendees to the meeting where they would be likely to cut to pay for additional teachers.
“The process takes time. Choices are tough. Some of us have to make choices against some of us and that’s tough,” Crates said. “I don’t want to pit staff against staff. It needs to be my job to avoid some of that turmoil.”
The trustees were responsive to Crates presentation. Trustee Alice Flores thanked Crates for conducting the cost analysis because the district needs to be concerned with the cuts that it makes and can’t frivolously cut any programs that add value to the district.
“It’s hard to make responsible decisions one item at a time,” said Trustee Dee Brown.
When it came time to discuss the teachers cost of living increase Crates said that he’d worked with the Hollister Elementary School District Teachers Association (HESTA) and felt good about the proposal they’d submitted.
“I’m pleased to bring this to the board, not only because the teachers are deserving but also because I’ve worked closely with them on this,” Crates said.
The only part of the tentative agreement anyone had questions about pertained to the phrasing which says, “In the event the District actually receives a 2006-2007 combined increase of less than 5.3 percent in state funding from revenue limit per ADA, equalization, and deficit reduction factor, the Association agrees to work collaboratively with the district to avoid qualified and/or negative budget reports during the 2006-2007 fiscal year.”
Brown asked what this meant and Crates explained if the district doesn’t receive the funds they need, HESTA will work with the district to make sure that the budget balances so they don’t get a qualifying report – the first step toward the state coming and taking over the district.
It was suggested that everyone just has to have good faith in everyone else, since it’s impossible to know what’s going to happen in the future. Brown confirmed that she had good faith in the teachers.
“I commend that faith in the teachers and I have faith, too. I’ve known many of you for 30-plus years,” Flores said to the 20 or so teachers in attendance. She thanked HESTA and Crates for having the foresight to move in this direction.
Prior to the vote on the agreement HESTA President Jan Grist shared a few words as well.
“Prior to Dr. Crates coming on board, we didn’t feel like there was movement. He’s been great. Now we feel like we’re moving forward in small steps,” Grist said. “Is the language wishy-washy? Probably, but the change comes in the quality of the discussions.”
With that, the board voted unanimously to approve the agreement, which was met with applause from the teachers in attendance.
