Many programs spared, several slashed
The school board met its quota at Thursday night’s board meeting but found little solace in its decision to cut almost $4 million from next year’s budget, with the district office and middle schools bearing the brunt of the squeeze.
Grim faces accompanied the board’s authorization to cut 42 positions from next year’s faculty and staff across all bargaining groups. The district managed to shave $931,000 at the district office level by reorganizing the administration, eliminating an assistant superintendent position and reducing district wide assessment programs by $100,000, among other cuts.
“Many of us will be doing two jobs on a long term basis,” Superintendent Deborah Flores said.
After weeks of consideration and hours of public hearings, when it came time to make the official cuts, the board plowed through the list with surprising speed.
During the study session, board members dueled over the big money saver: middle schools. At the last study session, middle school principals presented options for their students should the middle school day be reduced from eight to seven periods. In their second year of having an eight-period day, Gilroy’s middle schoolers’ typical schedule includes two periods of language arts, two periods of math and one period for social studies, science, physical education and an elective, each. Back in 2006, when the additional period was added to the day, more than nine teacher positions were added to the middle schools’ faculty.
“The three of us,” Sal Tomasello, principal of Ascension Solorsano Middle School, said, collectively gesturing to his fellow middle school principals, “believe the eight period day was, is and should be the best alternative for middle school students … but it’s very expensive.”
By eliminating an eighth period, the district will save $874,700 – the largest cut to the list.
By returning to seven periods a day and trying to accommodate the extra period of math that was added two years ago plus electives adds complications.
Trustee Denise Apuzzo has supported preserving the elective period through the entire budget debate, pointing out that with only one year of a double period of math under the district’s belt, little data, other than mere anecdotal information, is available with such a rookie program.
“I’m sure it has made a difference to a select few students,” she said of the extra period of math. “And that’s a win. But we’ve always had a seven-period day and we’ve always had electives. There are very few students saying, ‘Gee, you know what I really want instead of my elective? An extra period of math!'”
The principals have worked out an option that the board backed, allowing seventh and eighth graders who achieve the math benchmark to take a single period of math and an elective. Those who do not meet the benchmark are not eligible to enroll in an elective.
Offsetting cuts to the elective program, the middle schools were able to hang on to their band program, a program that saw many vocal supporters. Brownell Middle School Band Director Tom Brozene saw a ray of hope even when the middle school band program was on the chopping block at last week’s study session. Threats to the program are not new in this district, he said, but said it would be “the worst slash in music, band and choir Gilroy’s ever seen,” had the board cut band.
However, band was cut at the elementary school level. The revised list of cuts initially proposed eliminating PE from the elementary school day while saving the band program. In a last minute decision, Trustee Javier Aguirre proposed swapping out PE for band and the vote passed with a 4-2 vote – Trustee Francisco Dominguez was absent – opposed by Board President Rhoda Bress and Trustee Tom Bundros. Having difficulty wrestling with the decision, Bress voiced her displeasure with eliminating the PE program earlier that evening. Her “no” vote reflected her desire to keep both the band program and the PE program.
“I am very concerned about the elimination of elementary PE,” she said. “I truly believe in the value of those 30 minutes. There is a health crisis in our society and our community.”
Bundros expressed his support for developing further revenue enhancements such as a parcel tax that would allow the board to add items, such as the elementary band program, the arts program at the middle school, district wide assessments and early Wednesday dismissal, back to the curriculum.
“It’s important to let the community know that we’re trying to save some programs and here’s a list,” Aguirre said.
Following the vote, the board unanimously passed a resolution reducing staffing by 42 positions.
“I’ve never heard of anything like this since Prop(osition) 13 days,” Flores said.
California’s schools, which had been ranked among the best nationally in student achievement back in the 1960s, fell to its current status near the bottom of the barrel, as a result of Proposition 13, many educators said. The proposition moved to fund schools with state money rather than property tax revenues.
Despite cuts to GUSD that left board members shaking their heads, other districts have decided to make far more severe reductions, provoking students to protest in Alameda and San Diego. In Alameda, hundreds of students stood up and walked out of their Wednesday classes, a decision administrators thought unwise as a large chunk of state funding comes from average daily attendance. Early that morning, at a board meeting that ran over from the previous night, trustees voted to slash high school sports and advanced placement classes and increase class sizes. The protesting students, organized with the help of mass text messaging, wound through the city to the district office. Thursday, San Diego students protested cuts to the agricultural program at Ramona High School, a program that’s been offered continuously since 1957. Meanwhile, pink slips are flying all over the Bay Area.
A revised state budget comes out in May and Bress believes that the community can rally to make a difference to save education. With her guest column in Friday’s Dispatch and her advocacy and communication plan, Bress hopes to send a loud and clear message to the public: “Write to your legislators,” she said.
For all the cuts organized by the organizations they affect, check out
