Local schools nervously await word of funding figures as they
prepare for millions of dollars in cuts due to the state deficit by
laying off teachers and other employees and reducing hours of
work.
Local schools nervously await word of funding figures as they prepare for millions of dollars in cuts due to the state deficit by laying off teachers and other employees and reducing hours of work.
The Hollister School District, the county’s largest employer, is taking the hit particularly hard, with 24 layoffs on the table. While over in the Aromas-San Juan Unified School District, the financial situation has reached a critical level where officials are not only laying off employees, but they are also concerned about having the funds to pay teachers through the end of this school year.
“We’re so close to a state takeover,” said Jackie Munoz, the Aromas-San Juan superintendent. “We’re concerned about cash flow.”
It’s not as dire in Hollister’s elementary and middle schools, but officials are facing a nearly $4 million shortfall in the local district while it is sure to affect classroom sizes next school year.
Although results of the May election might improve the situation, the Hollister School District anticipates those 24 layoffs in 2009-10 to help make up a $3.9 million shortfall due to state budget woes.
Prospectively changing that number, and its potential effect on classroom sizes, is a proposition on the May special-election ballot that would ensure state payback of funding shortfalls to local schools down the road while allowing the Hollister district to forecast finances using less-drastic cuts, said HSD Superintendent Ron Crates, who noted how school officials started preparing for this “big problem” a year and a half ago.
Another potential injection could come from federal stimulus funds, but Crates said he is “leery” of the possibility.
District officials, therefore, for now are planning to follow through on the layoffs, while the affected employees already have been informed.
“I’m not going to put the district in a financial hole,” Crates said. “I’m just not going to – period.”
Crates called it “troublesome” that there were 14 “permanent” teachers – he likened it to being tenured – given pink slips for next school year.
Over in the Aromas-San Juan district, there are 9.4 full-time positions on the block, while Munoz confirmed that nine people are set to lose their jobs. She noted other classified jobs will be cut, including a library media clerk.
District officials on April 1 will propose use of flexible state dollars to fill the shortfall in the general fund to help offset the hit to the workforce there.
Crates, meanwhile, is holding out hope in particular, however, that voters will approve Proposition 1A on the May ballot. It calls for maintaining several of this year’s tax hikes for as long as four years while raising billions in additional revenue. Its approval would give him “some confidence” of future funding to fill the shortfall.
There inevitably will be an effect on classroom sizes, while Crates noted how the district will have some added flexibility with the state pulling back on prior restrictions and allowing a cap of 23 students in kindergarten or first grade and 25 students in second and third grades – increasing those figures from 20.
“I know that people are going to work to create the best possible situation with what we end up with,” said Mike Sanchez, the county office of education superintendent.
Neither San Benito High School District Superintendent Stan Rose nor Board President Bill Tiffany could be reached for comment before publication.
