Posts Tagged: Redwood City School District

Education — 2 Comments
26
Feb 12

Should I move to Redwood City and send my kids to its Public Schools?

A coworker recently asked me the following question:

I have a 2 year old daughter and we’re considering buying a house. Redwood City is more affordable than other communities, but I’m worried about the public schools. So, should I consider moving to Redwood City?

The short answer is a resounding “yes!”. I have two daughters, ages 13 and 11 who have experienced the Redwood City Public School system first hand and all the way through. For elementary school, both went to Orion, a wonderful, very small school based on parent participation. The school is cozy and beautiful, the teachers are great, and the community is incredible. A fantastic experience.

Orion, ends in 5th grade and before High School you have to pick a Middle School. The default choice is Kennedy Middle School, the largest middle school in Redwood City. Both my daughters are now at Kennedy, one in 6th grade, the other one in 8th. Kennedy is a completely different experience. It’s large and diverse, admitting kids from many other schools in Redwood City. In a way, it provides a realistic sample of our population, with a majority latino contingent and kids from various socio-economic backgrounds. My kids have had a great time at Kennedy, enjoying the greater variety and opportunities that a larger school can provide. They’ve had some great teachers and have been challenged academically.

Yes, funding issues affect our schools, but teachers and the administration make heroic efforts to provide the best education possible. We’re happy with the results and see that are kids are well prepared to face the High School experience.

So, sure, you don’t need to worry about our schools and if Redwood City with its great geography, location, revitalized downtown are and more sound good, go ahead, move in.

That said, I want you to move in with your eyes wide open, so here’s some additional information you should know… 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 →