Two hundred students, parents and teachers overflowed from the
school district office and into the parking lot Thursday night for
a sprawling budget study session that ran 1.5 hours late.
Two hundred students, parents and teachers overflowed from the school district office and into the parking lot Thursday night for a sprawling budget study session that ran 1.5 hours late.
“We’re on a critical, very short timeline,” Superintendent Deborah Flores informed the growing crowd. “By March 4, some decisions have to be made. Unfortunately since 90 percent of our budget’s in salary and benefits, that means some of the cuts will have to be in salary and benefits and in personnel.”
Over the next few weeks, trustees must slash $6.3 million from the district’s $88 million general fund budget – about 7.2 percent total – because the state has allotted it less money for 2010-11. Because employee salaries and benefits comprise the majority of the general fund, layoffs will likely be unavoidable, trustees said.
The three hours of chaotic proceedings spanned more than a dozen issues, from advertising on school buses – which was voted down – to increasing class sizes at the lower grades from 20 to 26 students – a more likely option. Attendees and speakers rambled and lobbied, fueled by nerves, rumors and a passion for their beloved programs.
At one point, a coach even took the podium to persuade trustees to keep a program that trustees had never considered cutting.
About a dozen wrestlers of all ages flanked Coach Greg Varela Thursday night in a preemptive plea to spare their teams.
“The life lessons you learn through sports … build so much character that helps (students) compete later on in life and introduces them to college,” said Varela, Gilroy High School’s head wrestling coach and a product of Gilroy public schools. He participated in athletics from his early years at El Roble Elementary School into his teens at GHS and Gavilan College.
“What scares me is the alternative to sports,” he said, quoting the saying printed on the back of a team shirt. “If you can’t find the time to teach a boy something good, someone will find the time to teach him something bad.”
Although she appreciated the wrestling team’s presentation, Trustee Denise Apuzzo said the school board had no intention of cutting athletics.
“I don’t know where that came from,” she said Friday. “It didn’t come from us. I am in total support of athletics.”
Rumors had been circulating that middle school sports might suffer a blow as a result of the cuts, Varela said. Those rumors are false, Apuzzo said.
“I guess we’re a little on edge,” Varela said.
At the beginning of the three-hour meeting, a group of parents circulated with large posterboards declaring, “Say no to pink slips.”
The audience set up extra chairs in haphazard rows and a Spanish interpreter provided headphones for parents that didn’t speak English. Some of Varela’s wrestlers crouched on the floor with other students at the standing room-only meeting. Many people spilled into the school district office’s lobby and, at times, administrators had to shush those attendees for talking too loudly during the meeting. When that didn’t work, someone closed the doors to the board room. Board President Francisco Dominguez had to remind several public speakers to wrap up their comments – limited to three minutes – in the interest of expediency.
In response to district staff’s proposal to cut three of the 14 middle and high school counseling and academic coordinator positions out of the budget, counselors presented two slideshows to persuade trustees of their worth. Eliminating those positions would cause caseloads to increase by about 250 per high school academic coordinator, said Marah Kuwada, an academic coordinator at Christopher High School.
“If our numbers are reduced and our caseloads go up, we’re going to have reduced time to address these personal-social needs,” Kuwada said. “I think you’ll see an increase in suicidality. You’re going to see more students depressed and nobody’s going to notice. And even if there is somebody who notices, there’s going to be nobody to serve them.”
Other teachers protested increasing class sizes, another hotly contested cut.
Toward the end of the study session, trustees haphazardly jumped from issue to issue, suggesting tweaks, requesting to remove some items from the list and asking for more information about other possible cuts. Several times, one trustee asked a colleague for clarification about what cut they were referring to.
“Can we just go down the list exactly again to see what we’ve taken off?” trustee Fred Tovar asked.
Some of the most significant cuts still on the list include layoffs, across the board pay cuts, combining special education and general education transportation, and increasing class sizes. However, no final decisions were made.
Trustees will reconvene for another study session Feb. 25.
