[Editor’s Note: During his first two years on the School Board, Vice President Scott Zeidman developed a reputation for being the most thoroughly prepared. For a deeper insight into last night’s emotional Board session on what it called Phase One of budget-cutting, here is Mr. Zeidman’s presentation.]
When we were considering a potential parcel tax, the School District sent a survey to Culver City registered voters, asking what programs and related items were important to these voters. These voters (including parents, teachers, classified, retirees, grandparents) were given a myriad of options. They responded quite clearly, telling us that the most important things were:
• Maintain Advanced Math, Science, Technology and College Prep Programs
• Preserve Small Class Size
• Retain Quality Teachers
• Keep School Libraries Open
• Provide Up-To-Date Instructional Materials
• Protect Art and Music Education Programs
• Keep School Facilities Clean, Safe and Well Maintained
If you look at the proposed cuts tonight, these items have indeed been preserved. There are no cuts to advanced math, science, technology and college prep programs; there are no cuts that will result in increased class sizes; there are no targeted cuts (as I will explain in a moment) that will result in the loss of a single quality full-time teacher; there are no cuts to the school libraries; there are no cuts to instructional materials, there are no cuts to art (but for our share of a consultant’s salary) and music education programs, and there are no cuts to janitorial or security.
So, where are the cuts?
Let’s start with the familiar mantra, “keep the cuts as far away from the children as possible.” Frankly, by some degree of separation, everything affects the children, but for the sake of argument, and by a show of hands, how many of you agree that when possible, the cuts should be as far away from the children as possible?
Okay, so let’s look at the proposed cuts:
1. Assistant Superintendent Human Resources
a. To be honest, this isn’t a cut, but rather a change in title resulting in a savings of over $20,000. I think that we’d all agree that this is away from the children;
2. Accounting Supervisor
a. No question, this one is away from the children;
3. Director of Special Projects
a. Again, away from the children;
4. Regular Summer School
a. This affects only the elementary and middle school students for the non-fee-based classes. The high school Summer School will be run to allow students to get the credits they need to graduate. If we were to cut the high school Summer School, we would be cutting another $1,100,000. Special Ed summer school is mandated and will be run.
5. Athletic Transportation
a. When our own busses aren’t available, the athletic program will need to figure out a way to get the students to the games. This one is arguably close to the children, but I’m confident that the programs can fundraise, and get enough parent involvement to leap this unfortunate hurdle;
6. Summer Mailings
a. Away from the children;
7. Consultants
a. While this cut will affect the children, every cut will, and these individuals generally do not work directly with the students;
8. Reduction of Telecom Expense
a. Away from the children;
9. (and 10, together) BTSA and Technology TOSA’s
a. These teachers help other teachers. They are not in the classroom. So by very definition, they are much like consultants and administrators, working with the teachers who in turn work with the children.
b. These 2.2 teachers will “bump” other teachers, but if enrollment stays constant, and with the anticipated and announced retirements, this bumping should not likely result in a loss of an existing teacher’s job.
10. See above
11. Independent Study
a. As Dave Mielke (president of the Teachers Union) has said on numerous occasions, Crisis is a time to prioritize, and I’ll add, make things more efficient.
b. We have three teaching positions taking care of only a handful of students in independent studies. With middle and high school classes north of 30, we can’t justify having three teaching positions for just a handful of students. Consequently, with budget cuts, a revamping of the Independent Studies program is necessary. This particular cut will not only save us money, but also make things more efficient. We should be looking everywhere for places that we can make more efficient. While we are cutting three teachers, you will see at the bottom that we are indeed adding one Independent Study program teaching position. So the resulting loss is two positions.
12. Adult School
a. Adult School funding was “swept” into the general fund last year and the Adult School was not cut at that time. Our focus needs to be on K-12 students, and while Adult School helps adult students and the community, we are accountable as a Board to provide our K-12 students with an education. As with the Independent Study program, this budget crisis is an excellent opportunity to rethink and revamp the programs, including the Adult School. The restructuring of the Adult School results in a savings of around $250,000, and by definition, is as far away from the children as possible.
13. Furlough Days
a. Reluctantly, the state is no longer funding 180 days of school. Instead, they have cut funding and now allow districts to educate only 175 days. So, in essence, they are funding just 175 days. There could be no cut closer to the children, and yet, there is nothing else that is going to get us even close to where we need to be. A cut of five days out of 183 days is equivalent to a 2.73% cut. Giving everyone, every single person in the District, five days off and a resulting 2.73% pay cut will save in the neighborhood of $1,000,000.
b. How do we keep this cut as far away from the children as possible, knowing that it directly affects those children?
i. First off, there are three Professional Development Days. Parents know these as pupil-free days. If we have to cut days, let’s start there. This means that we are cutting three days where the students aren’t in school anyway, so this is “away from the children.” The final two cuts necessarily have to be school days, so we should be looking long and hard at days that work the best for our students and our teachers and staff. This is certainly something that has to be approved of by the union, but we should be looking at something like the Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving week, or perhaps the Friday after the Thursday Veteran’s Day holiday. I’m certain that if we did a study of attendance, we will find that these type days are likely two of the least attended days.
Now, onto fairness. First off, the furlough days will affect every single employee, not just the teachers, and not just the staff. This reduction must be taken across the board, from the highest paid to the lowest paid, and should include the stipends that the five of us receive as well.
I’ve heard discussions that this budget cut is being done on the backs of our teachers. But frankly, I don’t see it. I hate to throw numbers around, but I feel compelled to give you all a bit of numerical background so that things are clear.
From the First Interim Report at pages 10 and 11 (http://www.ccusd.org/Budget/2009-2010_First_Interim.pdf) you can see the salaries for administrations, which total about $2.8 million
Five elementary school principals is over $500,000/annually.
Three secondary principals is over $325,000/annually.
Five secondary assistant principals is over $500,000/annually.
Adult school principal and OCD Director is over $210,000/annually.
Leaves us with about $1.4 million for Administrators who aren’t principals.
Of that $1.4 million, the proposed cuts save
· $21,000 on the reclassification of the Assistant Superintendent to Director;
· $100,000 on Accounting;
· $147,000 on Special Projects
· $10,000 on Summer School Administration
$278,000 from administration, which equates to just about 20% of the administration budget available for trimming. Add to that the required furlough days, and there’s an additional savings of approximately $67,000.
With respect to certificated staff, the proposed cuts send 2.2 TOSAs back into the classroom, resulting in the loss of 2.2 teachers (numbers 9-10 on the list). However, upon information and belief, we have more than 2.2 teachers who have announced that they shall be retiring. So pending enrollment, there will be no teacher losing his/her job due to the bumping by the TOSAs.
The cuts will revamp the Independent Study program, better utilizing our resources for the number of children in that program. At present, we have three teachers being cut and one teacher to replace those three, resulting in a more cost-effective system, but the loss of two teaching positions. Again, our retirements will likely be sufficient to cover these two job losses.
So, are the teachers bearing the brunt of these cuts? I don’t think so. I’m sorry that any cuts have to be made. I spent more than eight weeks of my life away from my family doing everything I could to pass Measure EE, which helps with about $1 million each year (money that we won’t see until 2011-2012), but even with that, we are in this financial position through no fault of anyone associated with Culver City Unified School District.
The blame lies in Sacramento, and “lies” is an appropriate word.
Nonetheless, while I hate to have to make these cuts, I think that they are, at this time, the best available to us, and the ones that will have the least negative effects on our children.
