The school district dodged millions of dollars in budget cuts
this year thanks to federal stimulus dollars, but the one-time
funds will make next year’s cuts that much harder to make, school
officials said. The result is that school trustees have considered
increasing class sizes and charging for transportation.
The school district dodged millions of dollars in budget cuts this year thanks to federal stimulus dollars, but the one-time funds will make next year’s cuts that much harder to make, school officials said. The result is that school trustees have considered increasing class sizes and charging for transportation.
Gilroy Unified School District received $4.6 million in unrestricted funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which President Barack Obama signed into law in February to create new jobs and invest in long-term economic growth. The district received an additional $1.8 million from the federal government to be put toward one-time expenses, such as staff development, for programs to educate socioeconomically disadvantaged, special education and preschool-aged children.
Trustees will decide what to do with $970,000 of the money earmarked for special education at Thursday’s board meeting.
In total, the California Department of Education will have distributed about $7 billion in federal stimulus dollars to school districts by next year, said Carol Bingham, director of fiscal policy with the CDE. The department has already begun doling out those funds but will distribute the remainder during the next year or so, Bingham said. Although some of the funds required school districts to apply and compete, “the major pots of money are all going out based on a formula” that includes district size, percentage of students living in poverty and the amount of money districts cut from their budgets last year, Bingham said.
Superintendent Deborah Flores said the district automatically received all of its funds, which were available before the school year started.
“It was a wonderful gift from the federal government,” Flores said.
In 2008, district administrators sidestepped significant cuts using the stimulus funds and by handing out pink slips and scaling back programs, she said. With about 90 percent of its general fund budget going toward salaries and benefits, the stimulus funds saved dozens of jobs this school year.
“The (stimulus) money really helped,” Flores said. “But without that in the upcoming fiscal year, we will have to make cuts.”
At least $5 million in cuts, she said.
With the average teacher receiving about $85,000 in total compensation, cutting $5 million could mean laying off nearly 60 teachers, according to district documents.
However, Flores said, “I can’t predict the number of jobs that means. There’s a lot of work to be done.”
Unless the federal government comes through again, which is unlikely, the district needs to get a move on planning for next year, Flores said. In fact, the situation might get worse.
“The governor is already talking about larger cuts in his Jan. 10 budget proposal,” Flores said. “We’re going to have to look at everything.”
Flores said she’s even heard rumblings of possible mid-year cuts.
With “everything on the table,” trustees will take a close look at two of the three areas that require significant contributions from the district’s general fund – transportation and a class-size reduction program that keeps student to teacher ratios at 20-to-1 in kindergarten through third grades. The third area that requires major funding is special education but the district is legally obligated to provide those students with a minimum level of service, trustees said.
Though the district receives money from the state for both transportation and class-size reduction, those two programs will require about $1.7 million from the general fund this year, according to district documents. The board has discussed charging students for transportation next year and will continue that conversation in study sessions after the governor releases his proposed budget in January, Flores said. Trustees will also revisit the merits of smaller classrooms.
Trustee Francisco Dominguez said both charging for transportation and increasing class size are viable ways to balance the impending budget gap but he would like to further discuss that decision with fellow trustees.
“In my opinion, we can’t cut any of the programs we have,” said trustee Mark Good. “But there’s a high likelihood that we’ll have to anyway.”
Transportation “might be at the top of the chopping block,” Good said. Charging for busing, extending the walk zone or outsourcing transportation are all options.
“Bottom line, we need to be able to educate students,” he said. “Part of that is making sure the kids get to the classroom so that makes it difficult to cut busing. But we’re in the business of educating students, not transportation.”
“The stimulus funds were a way for us to avert major disruption in our programs and allowed us to have some breathing room,” trustee Javier Aguirre said. “Now we need to go through our due diligence of reviewing every single large program. We’ve gone through so many cycles of cutting that didn’t impact the classroom. Now we might have to look at those (programs) that do.”
The options aren’t as black and white as eliminating or keeping small classes. Depending on the cuts needed, the district could boost class sizes at the third grade level and keep small classes at the lower grades, Aguirre said.
“We may have to look at a phased approach,” he said.
Good wanted to take a closer look at data regarding smaller class sizes, he said. The perceived success “might be more of a feeling than a reality,” he said.
The district will next examine its budget Dec. 10.
“Unless there’s some miracle at the state level, or the economy turns around really quickly,” Flores said, “next year’s going to be the worst year.”
The City of Gilroy also benefited from about $3 million in federal funds, City Administrator Tom Haglund said. While some allocations were automatic, the city applied for several grants that did not come through. However, the city did snag $1.2 million to save several police officer positions. The city will receive that grant over the next three years. In the fourth year, the city has committed to funding those positions independently.
“We’re certainly banking on the hope that the economy will have come back and allow us to more easily fund those positions in the fourth year,” Haglund said.
Other infrastructure projects, such as repairing city sidewalks, received one-time funds but “we only need those (funds) one time around,” Haglund said. The federal government granted Gilroy $700,000 to repair cracked and buckling sidewalks.
