First of two parts
I remember when Supt. David LaRose announced a few months ago, that his administration was working diligently on balancing our District budget. They were looking for unused funding to help pay for District employee raises. He thought the budget might be balanced in the next year or two. But in answering this Collective Bargaining Agreement question – Will this agreement create or increase deficit financing in the current or subsequent years? – the District’s answer shows that deficit spending will be making a U-turn. After trending down for several consecutive quarters, to about $1.2M or – 3.4 percent of the budget – it will reverse course and start increasing again. In this coming year, 2013-14, it will balloon to over $3M, 5.3 percent of the budget. The following year, it will grow even more, to $3.2M annually, 5.5 percent of the budget.
Funds ‘Reinvested?’
Also in the Collective Bargaining Agreement, under Assumptions, the District confirmed its intentions to go ahead and give employees a long-term, multi-year agreement, raising all salaries to the L.A. County average, saying “The District has a considerable amount of reserves built up over the past several years that are going to be reinvested into the salary schedule of the District.”
Where did they come up with that term? Reinvested? What does it mean? I have heard of giving teachers raises and their automatic annual Step-and-Column increases, even bonuses. But to say the District is going to sustain salaries with one-time reserve funds by “reinvesting them” in District salaries sounds just like plain “double speak.”
If School Board members want to invest this money in someone, why don’t they simply spend it directly on the students, themselves, instead of the adults?
Hell-Bent
Some current School Board members now seem intent on giving all employees sustained, multi-year raises. It looks as if Supt. LaRose will not be able to finish his job of taming the District's voracious deficit spending appetite after all. Not in the near future. Is that why he left the certification boxes unchecked when he signed the documents last week?
(To be continued)
Mr. Laase may be contacted at GMLaase@aol.com
