Today’s Gilroy Dispatch leads with a headline declaring that the
Gilroy Unified School District is estimated to lose about $79,000
in funding this month due to high absenteeism. The loss in revenue
is expected to total almost $600,000 for the year. I am asking Sen.
Abel Maldonado and Assemblywoman Anna Caballero to look into this
matter.
K-12 attendance calculations should be changed so it’s fair, not punitive
Dear Editor,
Today’s Gilroy Dispatch leads with a headline declaring that the Gilroy Unified School District is estimated to lose about $79,000 in funding this month due to high absenteeism. The loss in revenue is expected to total almost $600,000 for the year. I am asking Sen. Abel Maldonado and Assemblywoman Anna Caballero to look into this matter.
School districts across the state are being affected by the H1N1 flu and other seasonal flu strains. I don’t know how other districts are impacted, but at this rate, if a district with approximately 10,000 students is losing out on $600,000 this year and the entire state has over 6 million students that means as much as $3 billion in revenue could be lost to local schools this year! This may help balance the state budget, but it is very harmful to local school districts.
Schools need to hire teachers and provide facilities based on the number of students expected to attend (enrolled). Actual attendance varies depending on the time of year, health of the students, age of the students, and local norms. To encourage students to attend school when ill in order to increase attendance is counter productive to the guidance provided by other public agencies.
The community colleges use a “census” day to determine how many students are actually enrolled once per semester. This number is then used to calculate the state level of support. Actual attendance does not affect the revenue provided to the individual institution. The state colleges and universities are not required to report actual attendance to support their revenue claims, either.
Please consider sponsoring legislation to change the way that K-12 schools are funded to move away from actual attendance to enrollment. Incentives for higher attendance rates could be included in the legislation but they should not negatively impact the anticipated revenue to the district for the current school year.
Thank you for your continued support of education and other workforce development efforts.
David J. Matuszak, Gilroy
VTA faces huge budget crunch, but will fundamental change happen?
Dear Editor,
What fundamental changes will the red-ink stained Valley Transportation Authority not consider? Will Supervisor Don Gage continue to defend VTA’s boondoggles? Will taxpayers be willing to dig deeper to bailout VTA screwball conduct again? Why won’t any elected official demand privatization – contracting out to reduce the taxpayers’ subsidies?
How long can VTA escape reality?
Will Carl Guardino defend them the same way that the Soviet planners defended the USSR’s five-year plans?
Joe Thompson, Gilroy
Salvation Army ready to help those in need this holiday season
Dear Editor,
The Giving Tree is the program at The Salvation Army in Gilroy that helps us provide toys and clothing to many of the children in our South Santa Clara communities of Gilroy, San Martin and Morgan Hill during the Christmas season.
There are many people in our communities that are in need this year that may never have found themselves in this situation before. Jobs have been lost, companies have closed. Some no longer have the homes they once had. Everyone is feeling the affects of what is happening, but some in a much more serious way than others. The majority of these families have children in the household. The children may not be aware of all their families might be going through, but could certainly miss out on many of the things that most of us do take for granted.
We believe that the generosity of our community will shine through again this year with those who are willing to share what they have been blessed with. With your help we can again make a difference in the lives of families and children in need.
You can help by placing a Tree in your place of business or church. Customers or members of your congregation can choose an Angel tag from the tree and purchase a toy or clothing item for a child in need. If the tree isn’t appropriate for your business, you can just take the Angel tags and hang them from your counter or bulletin board.
The Angel tags state whether the child is a boy or girl, their age, and the toy or clothing item (with size) they request for Christmas. We gather this information from the applications that we take, and then provide the number of Angel tags you request. You can specify ages or boy/girl, as some groups or possibly classrooms may want to buy for children that are a specific age.
If you would like to participate, or have any questions, please call Ellen Torchio, or Captain Melissa Viquez at 848-5373.
You can also adopt a family for Christmas by calling Christine Flautt who coordinates this program for us each year at 842-6745 or make a donation of non-perishable food, cash, a check, or new toys at our office, 200 W. 5th St. All donations are Tax Deductible.
Thank you and may God bless you.
Captains Robert and Melissa Viquez,
Salvation Army commanding officers, Gilroy
