The reductions have been placed in five groups to aid the Board members in recommending implementation and reinstatement. The State cash flow problems are going to impact the DUSD budget for next year, the question is how much. $2.1 million is a number (after credits for additional revenue and expected staff attrition) that has frequently appeared in the last few weeks. Therefore, the Board will probably be forced to choose at least four of the five groups presented below and may want to adopt all five to allow for uncertainty in the State budget process. It does appear that for the most part the District listened to parents and did not recommend huge cuts to sports, music (with the exception of band), or art.

However K-3 and 9th grade class size reduction was not as fortunate. Group 2 will increase class sizes for Kindergarten to 21 and Grades 1-3 and 9 to almost 25. Group 5 reductions will increase all these class sizes to 28 (except Grades 1&9).

Negotiations with the represented staff will need to take place before all of the reductions can be implemented. The reduction of days for leadership, classified, and certificated staff will probably be slightly less than normal step and column increases per the certificated contract. For example a teacher with 5 years of experience without a master’s degree is scheduled to get a 3.2% raise next year. The reduction of three staff development days will reduce their total pay by 1.6%. Even with reductions, staff will get a modest increase.

Draft Budget Reductions for 2009/2010 School Year

Group 1
Leadership Position $137,020
Teachers on Special Assignment for Schools under 600 $38,800
AP at High School – Temporary Transfer to Facilities $130,575
Expand Team Cleaning $56,329
Economic Impact Aide Teacher (ELD) $75,000
TV TIP Reduction $40,567
Reduction in Certificated Substitute Rates $30,000
Reduction in Classified Substitute Rates $10,000
Athletic Program Reduction $30,000
4th Grade Band $80,662
Group 1 Total $628,953

Group 2
One Staff Development Day $148,000
Reduction of One Day (Leadership) $17,000
Reduction of One Day (Classified) $25,000
Library Media Aides at all schools – 4 hours $171,838
Class Size Modification (K<21, 1-3<25) $300,000
Class Size Modification – (9th grade <25) $90,000
Group 2 Total $751,838

Group 3
One Staff Development Day $148,000
Reduction of One Day (Leadership) $17,000
Reduction of One Day (Classified) $25,000
Counselors Grades 6-8 (At Risk) $62,457
Group 3 Total $252,457

Group 4
Staff Development Day $148,000
One Reduction of One Day (Leadership) $17,000
Reduction of One Day (Classified) $25,000
Group 4 Total $190,000

Group 5
Elimination of Kindergarten CSR- 537 students Class to 28 $287,63
Elimination of Third Grade CSR- 497 students Class to 28 $266,143
Elimination of Second Grade CSR- 501 students Class to 28 $266,143
Group 5 Total $819,921

Grand Total $2,643,169

The draft proposal may use $870,000 of the recently approved Parcel Tax to fund the annual shortfall in funding for class size reduction and $200,000 for other programs.

The primary issue is the District’s lack of gaining knowledge from the budget reduction process last year. Many parents were bothered by the lack of transparency in the process. The closure of Nielsen led to several complaints about DUSDs handling of the issue; concerns were raised about the rollout of a plan without much opportunity to consider any other options.

A similar process is being used this year. The District provided the five Board members with the above recommendations last Friday. They did not post the recommendations for public viewing until late Monday afternoon (for a meeting the next evening). Several Board members had expressed concern regarding not having enough time to consider the budget cuts if they did not receive the recommendations until the day before the meeting. Apparently, the parents and many other members of our community do not require this extra time.

Most of the Board members have expressed issues with communication with the community and many of the newly elected members made campaign promises to not repeat the issues with the Nielsen closure last year.

DUSD will point out that they met the letter of the law for noticing of a “special meeting” (only 24 hour posting is required). The reduction in normal meeting posting is for information that is quickly changing and where it would be difficult to make the 72-hour requirements. In this case the District was able to provide the information on Friday, except to the public. I was led to believe that the District was planning to improve communications.

Related posts:

1. Balancing the Budget
2. Budget Challenges

On January 15, 2009, the School Board resumed their discussion regarding postponing the opening of Kolb Elementary. Dr. Stephan Hanke presented the most recent enrollment projects and stated that he expects east side schools (Green, Dougherty, and Fallon) to be unable to accommodate 182 pupils in 2010-2011 and 403 in 2011-2012 if Board action is not taken on February 10, 2009, to request bids from licensed contractors to construct Kolb. There was some debate among the Trustees. Some thought the numbers may be low, while others thought they might be high; however, all agreed that a shortage of available classroom space will definitely occur.

The issues around Kolb involve the $0.5 M in administrative operating costs for each school year versus delaying the bid and losing out on the very competitive bidding environment that currently exists. The only alternative is to keep Fallon a K-8 facility for one more year, and build relocatable structures at Green coupled with a permanent boundary change for students at Camp Parks and the Transit Center or forced diversions of Green and Dougherty students to west side schools. Should the decision wait another year, up to an additional 250 – 300 children will have to attend Green and Dougherty (most likely Green since space is an issue at Dougherty); at 25 students per classroom that is up to 12 relocatable structures. As we all know, once those structures are placed they often stay for a very long time.

I urge all parents to come out and support a yes vote on the decision to advertise for the construction of Kolb Elementary for the following reasons:

• The most delay we can reasonably tolerate is one year. The bids received maybe substantially higher in another year. Our east side impact fees are already insufficient for all of the needs.
• The relocatable classrooms will be paid for out of Measure C. As a member of the Measure C Oversight Committee I can assure you that those funds are already insufficient to pay for other District projects. In other words, wasted money!
• The operation of Fallon as a K-8 facility was supposed to be for a limited time. By 2010 the ratio of 6-8 students to K-5 students will be 2:1 by 2011 it will be 3:1. The ability to provide the optimum learning environment for both groups will be compromised as the students are forced to adjust to the larger middle school population.
• Bids on recent construction projects in the Bay Area are being received that are 10 to 40% under the engineer’s estimate. The savings to the District’s east Dublin impact fees would be enormous.
• The District is currently facing a shortfall of $3.0 million in the operating budget. Kolb would add just $0.5 million in the 2020/2011 Fiscal year budget shortfall (just a 17% increase). The District is going to have to find creative ways to deal with the shortfall by that time.
• Delay would cause an unnecessary impact on the operation of Green Elementary. Most if not all of the relocatable classrooms would be placed there and the school would greatly exceed the District standard of 650 children.
• School diversions will affect the last parents to register their children. In other words the new homeowners will be unable to attend neighborhood schools. This may adversely affect already depressed home values; not because there is anything wrong with west side schools, just the inconvenience of transportation.

A town hall meeting will occur on February 4 in the Dougherty multi-purpose room at 6:30. The District is planning to present revised capacity numbers for each of the three existing east side schools. The impact of having an entire school’s student body spread between Fallon and Green is equivalent to a school closure. All parents / students / homeowners that are concerned about school overcrowding should attend the town hall on February 4 and the Board meeting on February 10 and make a public comment. There is strength in numbers!

Related posts:

1. Parent Comments From the Kolb Elementary School Town Hall
2. DUSD Publishes Draft Budget Reductions