Education

Education — No Comments
1
May 10

Save the Music!

The Redwood City Education Foundation produced this video to call attention to the rather deplorable fact that all projections indicate that due to the huge budget shortfall we’re facing instrumental music will be cut next year in the Redwood City School District… Watch.

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The Redwood City Education Foundation is fighting hard to prevent this one and more cuts but raising funds before June when the School District needs to finalize its budget. If we manage to raise enough by then we can save instrumental music. Donate, volunteer, organize, spread the word, and read all about it in RCEF’s Save the Music page.

And here are additional action items, from an email sent by Georgia Jack, one of the organizers of RCEF’s Save the Music efforts:

Donate to help us reach our minimum goal of $100,000 to maintain 5th through 8th grade instrumental music programs for all of our students in all 17 elementary and middle schools.

Participate in the Groovin’ in the Grove (GIG) concert event on May 29, 2010, being held at Sequoia Unioin High School’s Carrington Hall and Grove area AND the 4th of July Fun Run taking place in downtown Redwood City before the parade. For more information see: www.rcef.org/groovin and www.rcef.org/funrun

Education — 4 Comments
16
Mar 10

Redwood City Teachers Union Meeting with Parents

On March 16th, Redwood City school parents held a meeting with officials from the Redwood City Teachers Union to discuss impending cuts. The District is proposing a 5 day reduction in the school year and is relying on the savings from that to address part of the shortfall expected in next year’s budget.

Panel participants: Lisa Carlos, moderator. Bret Baird, president of the RWC Teachers Union. William Crowe, president elect. Kim Combs, Classified Union Rep. Jean Martin, member of RCTA. Ara Prigian, CTA representative.

The next section has my notes from the meeting, edited for readability, and without my own editorial comments. You can stop at the end of that if you’d like, or go on to my rather bleak take on the proceedings.

Notes from the meeting

The organizers pose 3 questions to get the discussion started:

  1. Where is the union in the process of negotiating for this current year and what is your hope of where this process will lead?
  2. How confident are you that the union’s position represents a majority of your constituents with this current contract?
  3. What are you suggestions to the district for balancing the budget in the coming year?

Lisa introduces the panel and lets the current president of the Union answer the three questions.

Bret welcomes everyone for coming, and thanks all for the work of the PTAs, the Redwood City Education Foundation, and finally parents in the classroom.

He starts with question #3. The position of the union is not to fire, hire or evaluate. The union does not take positions on this. Individuals can take positions, but the union does not. If the union takes a position it favors some members over others. Their job is to look for the best contract and working conditions, salary and benefits.

On question #1. Currently at “impasse”. At the second day of negotiations, the Union said they would not be involved in suggesting cuts, and then the District got up from the table, interrupting negotiations. Bret points out the “impasse” has never been reached so quickly. This year the Governor allowed districts to reduce the number of school days by 5 days, a reduction that requires negotiation with the teachers’ union. Bret implied that the School Board move to impasse quickly to force arbitration in the hope of forcing the Union to accept the 5 day cut. Currently waiting for arbitration to begin.

The Union is hoping for the status quo. They claim the mid-year cuts and current expectations of further cuts are projections based on the the Governor’s January speech. CTA claims our District is on the conservative side on these matters, cutting early. The Union’s job is to act as check and balance to ensure things are done properly.

On question #2. He’s very, very confident that their position reflects the position of a majority of the members. They did a survey and got results back. Many of the members are upset about the mid-year cuts. The Union is an extremely democratic organization where everyone can speak at meetings. Any teacher can come raise issues and so can anywhere else. They meet the first Monday of every month at Red Morton.

Lisa: district website has papers with the current proposals from the District and the Union. Officials from the District were not invited to this meeting. After some discussion on why the School Board is not here, and what’s confidential during negotiations, Lisa asked the audience to submit their questions.

Questions from the audience:

Has the suggestion been made to furlough District office workers instead of teachers? How about “furlough Fridays” like in Sacramento? Ara: furlough is unpaid. It’s a bad term. 3 days a month for DMV and other state workers. It’s mandatory to have an 180 day school year, but they allow a maximum of 5 days to be removed after negotiation with the local union. Unpaid days for teachers, no education for kids. The proposal is to remove 4 instructional days and 1 non instructional teacher day. Yes, administrators took some days too, but they work a longer year. Administrators reach the top of their salaries quicker than the teachers (6 years rather than 24 years).

What are the other points of contention for the contract? Just the cuts in teacher days. For 08-09 teachers took 0% salary increase. This year the union accepts the status quo, leaving everything the same. No salary increases. This in itself helps the district save money. 4.5M cut this year, already done. 0% increase and then the cuts, and also 0% last year. If you keep the contract going as is, the union will go into negotiations immediately for next year. Continue reading →

Education — 7 Comments
14
Feb 10

RWC Mid-Year Cuts: unfortunately just the beginning

The Redwood City School Board met on 2/10/2010 to discuss recommendations for mid-year cuts. The meeting was very well attended, very long and incredibly emotional. After 1 hour of various unrelated business, we got into the meat of things. Raul repeated his excellent presentation which clearly explains the deplorable financial situation of school districts around our State (If you have not seen it, read it now: Special Board Meeting Mid-Year Cut 2.3.10).  And there were some small updates from the previous week: incredibly, the situation is looking even more grim now and we’re projecting a higher shortfall than before due to new information from Sacramento.

In the next section of the meeting people had the chance to address the Board. Many people spoke, concerned about the various cuts currently under way. We heard from teachers, parents, staff and even a principal. There was crying, there was yelling, there were some accusations, but by and large the speakers were polite and made their points eloquently. Most of the comments had to do with the removal of teachers from classrooms in the middle of the year and the impact on kids, specially Kindergartners. 8th graders from McKinley made a statement in support of their math teacher, soon to be laid off.

The Board members listened stoically, saving their responses and commentary for the end. When that time came they asked the administrators for some clarifications, discussed the situation and eventually voted to approve the cuts as proposed. (I left at 11:30PM before the vote took place.)

I don’t envy them at all. Their job is to be responsible adults and keep our School District functioning under extremely adverse circumstances. They all pointed out that none of these cuts are good and that we’re making them because we really have no choice. And they reminded us that given the financial outlook, these cuts are just the first, a small sample of the cuts that are coming.

Why Mid-Year Cuts?

Basically, because the district has no choice. The district has to maintain a 3% cash reserve to avoid being taken over by the State. Current cash reserves are around 3.69%. The State Controller has warned that California might not have enough money to pay salaries in the months ahead and the district might need some of the reserves for that. And the situation can get even worse if the State decides to impose a mid-year cut retroactively like they did at the end of last year. Cuts made now also mean fewer cuts to be made for next year’s budget although this is little consolation as we expect massive cuts then regardless.

So, cuts need to be made. What can get cut? In Redwood City not much. The district has already been cutting every year to reach our current situation where 85% of the budget goes to salaries. At this point any non trivial cuts require reducing staff.

And because of various contracts the district has very little choice of who can get cut in the middle of the year. The jargon here is a bit confusing for outsiders like me, but my understanding is that the district can’t lay off teachers when they’ve been employed for 75% of the school year, which requires cuts to happen very soon. “Temporary teachers” get chosen first. Their positions can be filled with teachers that currently work in the district but outside the classrooms. And it seems we’re even lucky in Redwood City that we have other teachers that can take over.

What are the Cuts?

The cuts and some of the rationale is outlined in this letter from the superintendent. You can see them here as well. For each cut, the first number is how much we save this year followed by how much we save the following year:

  • 9 temporary classroom teachers: 261K/764K. Positions to be back filled by credentialed teachers in the district but not currently working within the classroom.
  • 1 accountant: 23K/87K. The administration would pick up extra work.
  • 5 custodians: 67K/256K. Currently school classrooms are on an ABC schedule, cleaned every 3 days. Now they will be cleaned once a week. Restrooms, cafeterias and nurses’ rooms will be cleaned every day.
  • Reduce RSP instructional aides to 3 hours: 60K/229K. Impacts 25 employees in the district.
  • 1 office manager at Roosevelt: 23K/55K. This is a vacant position.
  • 1 system manager, position currently vacant: 39K/105K.
  • 1 classroom teacher at Newcomer: 82K/82K.
  • Plato learning program: 25K/25K.
  • Freeze budget for library books and materials: 23K/31K.

The district is still hoping to reduce the work year for all employees by 5 days, for a possible further reduction this year of 1.3 million. Negotiations are at an impasse with the teacher’s union. Mediation will begin on March 17th. The union notified the district they won’t move until mediation takes place.

The following were originally considered for mid year cuts but were rejected at this point: these will not be cut right now:

  • Increase class sizes to 31 at grades K-3.
  • 1 transportation dispatcher.
  • 10.7 library aides.

Of course, we expect all these to be cut at the end of the year as possibly the deepest cuts in recent memory are expected, their magnitude depending on the level of funding supplied by the State.  As always, our dysfunctional State won’t be able to pass the budget in reasonable time and the school district will be required to make worst case cuts in advance of next school year. And now the projected shortfall has grown, to between 4.7 and 13.7 million dollars.

Raul noted that current funding is about the same of 2006/2007 but we now serve 1000 more students. We reduced our budget by 17% in the last three years. Per student funding went from 5500 per year to 4700 per year in 2009/2010. The situation is expected to get worse in the next few years. The public education system is being dismantled in front of our very eyes. Continue reading →

Education — 9 Comments
30
Jan 10

For public schools it’s back to basics

The yearly budget cuts season is now in full swing in Redwood City, and everywhere else in our beleaguered California school system. Budget cuts have been a yearly occurrence, with Redwood City making cuts in 8 of the last 9 years. But this year is special: the usual reduction in funds from the State of California is combined with the lack of a new stimulus from the Federal Government. Last year’s stimulus funds allowed our district to save half of the programs slated to be cut. The district had made a long prioritized list of everything that could conceivably be cut, totaling around 10 million dollars, and around half of the items were saved by the stimulus. This year, no stimulus and even less money from Sacramento means we’re facing cuts between 5 and 10 million dollars.

This last week I attended one of the parent meetings with district officials. Jan Christensen, our superintendent, tellingly started the presentation by describing what schools were like in the eighteen hundreds. Think of the school in “Little House on the Prairie”: one big room, full of kids, one teacher, bare bones, no special programs, no frills. The message seemed pretty clear: for next year and on, think “back to basics”. We’ll continue to have public schools, safe clean places for learning. We’ll continue having devoted, heroic teachers, striving to teach our kids to the best of their abilities. And our kids will learn, just like they did back then. But that’s it. We can no longer expect from the public school system those features we’ve taken for granted for so long and which have been vanishing in front of our very eyes these past few years.

My daughter started Middle School this year. Last year there was an extra period with cool “enrichment” activities: art, dance, drama, even TV production. Last year’s cuts did away with many of these, so this year’s 6th graders did not have the same options as their predecessors. Year after year we see programs removed. And it hurts. The knowledge that my second daughter, only 2 years younger than her sister, will have a poorer education experience is hard to take.

So, what are the cuts our district will very likely have to make this year? First, here’s a list of the School District’s priorities, as outlined by Jan in the meeting:

  1. Student achievement. Keep the students learning. Prepare them for high school where they’ll be competing with kids from more affluent school districts.
  2. Safety. Provide a safe, clean environment for learning.
  3. Compliance, Rules and Regulations. The District needs to comply with a large set of rules and regulations if it wants to keep its funding from the State and Federal Government.
  4. Solvency. The School District cannot run deficits and is required by State law to maintain a 3% cash reserve.

Unfortunately solvency rules this year. The district already spends around 85% of its funds on salaries. The required cuts are so high again this year that we won’t be able to avoid reducing the work force. So, what do I think we’ll be cutting?

  • Everything we did not cut last year from our prioritized list of possible cuts. This includes the GATE program, IB program, music in the middle schools, outdoor education and much, much more, nurses, psychologists, support staff, etc.
  • The school year will be shortened by 5 days. This is one way to save money without laying off teachers. I assume it will happen in spite of opposition from the Teacher’s Union and us, the parents. (Note that a proposal to cut the school year by 5 days this year was already rejected by the Teacher’s Union).
  • Class size reduction will be over, everywhere: all schools and all grades. All classes will have 31 students. Fewer teachers will be needed to teach the same number of kids. Kindergarten classes with 31 kids will hurt those kids that don’t arrive prepared with Pre School experience. Tragically, teachers won’t have time to make sure no kids are left behind. The benefits of small class size, specially in the first few years are well understood.
  • Fewer administrators, resulting in lower levels of service. Principals will be required to take on other jobs, the district office won’t be as responsive as before. Administrative processes will suffer. There will be slower turn around times for non emergency services.
  • Closing a school site. There’s serious discussion of moving Orion to Roosevelt and renting out the Orion campus for extra revenue. This could happen as soon as next year.

What good things can we look forward to then? Here’s a list of possibilities, in decreasing order of probability… Continue reading →

Education — No Comments
9
Jan 10

Welcome to the 2010 School Budget Cuts Season!

Another year, another round of potentially devastating budget cuts for our Redwood City public schools. This just in, from the School District:

Dear Parent Leaders,

Last year the Redwood City School District faced the worst budget cuts in many decades. Due to the state budget crisis, the district was forced to cut $5.5 million from the 2009-10 budget, including administrators, teachers, counselors, and clerical staff.  Class sizes increased at the K-3 level, and library hours were reduced.  About $5 million more would have been cut, but the federal stimulus package allowed the district to save a number of programs including instrumental music, and the Gifted and Talented Program (GATE), and a number of important staff positions.

The news from Sacramento remains grim.  The state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office projects a state budget shortfall of $6.3 billion for 2009-2010, and a $14.7 billion shortfall for 2010-11.  We do not yet know the full extent of the impact on our district from this latest bad news, but it is very possible that the state will impose mid-year cuts for the current school year.  If the state imposes mid-year cuts, our district will have to eliminate programs and positions during this school year.

In addition, we will have to cut $5-8 million dollars from the 2010-11 budget.  There is no pleasant way to communicate such bad news, but it is important for you to know the challenges that lie ahead.  Keeping our community informed of budget developments is a top priority, so we have planned a series of interactive community budget meetings for January and February to provide a budget update, and answer questions.

Please feel free to attend one of our regular community forums:

Date/Time: Location
January 19, 6-8PM: Garfield School, 3600 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park
January 25, 6-8PM: MIT/North Star, 400 Duane St., Redwood City
February 8, 6-8PM: Roy Cloud School, 3790 Red Oak Way, Redwood City
February 16, 6-8PM: Clifford School, 225 Clifford Ave., Redwood City

Sincerely, Jan Christensen
Superintendent

It’s good that we’re starting to discuss next year’s situation earlier this year. Typically we go through a very quiet time until the end of the year panic. Last year we faced huge cuts, partially mitigated by the stimulus package, which sadly won’t be available next year.

Related public education news

In San Mateo County residents in need would fare worst under budget proposal the San Mateo County Times reports that…

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget would have the most impact on low-income San Mateo County families and others who rely on some form of government assistance, while schools have a chance to emerge unscathed, officials and lawmakers said Friday.

I’ll have to see it to believe it. The part about remaining unscathed. Raul Parungao, RCSD’s chief administrator is quoted in the article:

“It’s pretty encouraging,” said Raul Parungao, chief business official for the Redwood City School District. “But we are still proceeding with caution.”

Parungao recalled how school districts endured many changes in the fiscal landscape last year after the governor announced his budget plan. Even after the governor signed the budget for 2009-10, Parungao said, Schwarzenegger made a revision in July that resulted in some funding loss for education.

The Redwood City district still faces cuts of at least $4.7 million in 2010-11, according to Parungao. That’s largely because the $6.1 million in one-time federal stimulus money the district received will be used up, he said.

I’ll keep reporting as more news emerge. Happy New Year!

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