Hello, everyone.
I want to give everyone a quick update on last Tuesday night's special School Board meeting. (Actually, I'll let you read Sandi Levin's report she posted a couple of days ago on various Yahoo groups. See her email below mine).
Not to spoil Sandi's report, but I do want to note that budget-cut decisions have not yet been made, and they are now scheduled to be made at next Tuesday's regularly scheduled board meeting, which will be held at Lin Howe School.
I do want to say, from my point of view, the participation from parents, teachers, classified employees, staff, principals, management and everyone else was awesome, especially for a meeting called on such short notice.
The meeting was moved to a larger venue, the Lin Howe Cafetorium, and the room was packed.
Almost every speaker spoke against class- size increases. There were some great speeches (public comment) with a lot of cheering and support. It truly did feel like a community pulling together in a very difficult time.
I want to thank all the teachers who came out to speak against class-size increases.
They told the administration and the School Board, firstA-hand, how devastating the effects would be to their students.
I want to thank all the parents who came and spoke against class size increases and participated, (Teachers Union President) David Mielke, who stood up for our kids in opposing class-size increases, and even a classified employee or two who lent their voices to the craziness of jamming more kids into classrooms than teachers can effectively teach.
I also want to thank the Board members for listening to the community and not rushing into cuts without fully examining the issues at hand.
There are many important items and programs on the chopping block.
Many people's jobs are at stake (people whom our students depend on one way or another).
I believe we need to find a way to protect as much as possible and be as smart as possible with the cuts we do have to make.
I and some other parents are trying to do what we can to increase the School District’s revenues and reduce its non-beneficial expenses.
I hope we can have an impact on avoiding (or undoing) some of the most damaging cuts. However, whatever we accomplish, we cannot do this alone.
My personal opinion is that upper management, and School Board members to some extent, should be making financial concessions right now regardless of what anyone else does or doesn't do.
They are our leaders.
I believe they should lead by example. They should share in some of the pain, not hold onto every penny of their salaries, allowances and stipends while they consider budget cuts that call for large numbers of teachers and employees under them to lose their jobs.
School Board members receive small stipends. Upper management cuts, while potentially significant, can't, alone, plug the budget hole. But every penny helps.
Such cuts would send a powerful message that we are all in this together. It is time for upper management to exhibit leadership on this issue, in my opinion.
Here is Sandi Levin’s email:
Here’s a brief report on the meeting Tuesday night regarding the budget:
General Info:
A lot of information was presented; no action was taken. The Board members (thankfully) said they wanted more information and more time to digest the information that was provided to them just 30 minutes before the meeting (and to the rest of us at the meeting).
Decisions will be made at the 3/10 meeting regarding the cuts and then the final budget docs can be prepared for adoption on the 17th.
(Side note: Once the Board members indicated their reluctance to proceed Tuesday night, Superintendent Cote was very helpful in suggesting that they could defer final budget adoption until 3/17. She acknowledged that, although that is technically two days after the state-imposed deadline, it is better to have a quality result everyone is comfortable with.)
The numbers are slightly improved over the previous reports, but still pretty horrendous: We need to cut several hundred thousand out of this year’s budget with only 3 months left in the year; and $1.75-$2 million in unrestricted funds plus $1.6 million in restricted funds for next year and each year after. (New information is provided by the state every day.) The cuts will be painful.
There were many impassioned pleas from teachers, classified employees, parents and students.
My impression of the comments was that most centered on keeping the cuts as far away from the kids and the classroom as possible, sharing the pain in an equitable way among all employees and programs, getting as much information as possible before taking any final action and finding new ways to raise revenues that are not dependent on the state.
[Someone pointed out that these cuts amount to roughly $10 per child per week and offered to just pay it for his children! ☺ ]
Re: class size (my biggest concern):
The estimates for the cuts passed out at the meeting indicated that this could be done without increasing Middle School and High School class sizes and potentially without increasing 4th and 5th grade class sizes. Further analysis is required to be sure.
Several parents and teachers pointed out that many classes already have 35-36 kids in Middle and High School, and increasing class size by 4 or 5, as proposed, would make their classes unteachable.
Board members Scott Zeidman and Steve Gourley both indicated that increasing class size by 4 or 5 students at the Middle School and High School was “off the table” as far as they were concerned. Other Board members did not have an opportunity to weigh in on that issue since the decision was postponed before they commented on class size issues. We should have a final answer next week.
Please keep writing to the Board. Thank them for taking their time to consider this fully, and let them know how important class size is to education and to us.
Mr. Gray may be contacted at grayusa@sbcglobal.net.
School Board members may be contacted at boardmembers@ccusd.org; RIVERA COTE, MYRNA
