Gilroy
– First, the school district predicted a small budget surplus
for this year. In August, that turned into a $296,000 shortfall.
Both estimates came with the caveat that things could actually turn
out worse.
Now that the books are nearly closed on last year
– absent an official audit – it looks like they are worse.
By Lori Stuenkel
Gilroy – First, the school district predicted a small budget surplus for this year. In August, that turned into a $296,000 shortfall. Both estimates came with the caveat that things could actually turn out worse.
Now that the books are nearly closed on last year – absent an official audit – it looks like they are worse.
Gilroy Unified School District is $690,000 in the hole, and will be $1.2 million under at the end of the 05-06 school year, said Assistant Superintendent Steve Brinkman.
Earlier this month, trustees approved the district’s process to find $1 million in cuts in this year’s budget. They also approved its criteria for reviewing – and potentially cutting – open jobs, calling it a “soft” hiring freeze.
“What we’re doing is we’re applying the criteria to positions that are currently open,” Superintendent Edwin Diaz said. “What we’ve told the board is, almost at every meeting, we will come with recommendations as far as which ones to not fill for the rest of the year.
“At the same time that this is happening, the Budget Advisory Team is meeting to find which areas to reduce.”
The team of more than 20 GUSD employees representing various departments and employee groups met for the first time Thursday. With weekly meetings and everything “on the table,” recommended cuts could come to the board by December, Brinkman said.
Some of the reasons for the bigger budget gap were expected: $460,000 for a higher workers’ compensation premium, and $425,000 for higher health insurance. Others were unexpected: $233,000 more than was budgeted is being spent from the general fund on other programs, including food service; and the district settled mediation with a special education student – who said the district was not providing an appropriate education – and will now spend $70,000 for alternative education.
The budget committee is looking at a long list of cuts across all areas, Brinkman said.
“The ground rules were, let’s not discuss right or wrong, we’re not going to get into details, and there are no bad ideas,” he said.
Even class size reduction in kindergarten through third grade – excluded from the list last year – is an option. The federally-funded initiative keeps class sizes at an average of 20 students per teacher in those grades, but costs the district money.
At next week’s regular board meeting, trustees will be asked to vote on eliminating two GUSD jobs. One is a part-time, non-teaching position and the other is a district administrative position. The savings, if approved by the board, would be about $120,000 per year. For this year, though, the employees already have received several months’ pay.
The administrative position open is that of director of student assessment. Esther Corral-Carlson, who has been with GUSD for more than 20 years, is leaving today to become assistant superintendent in another district.
“Some of the duties will be reassigned to others, and some will be significantly reduced,” Diaz said. “With the new Accountability Plan, our major focus is being able to provide information back to the school sites in a user-friendly way, and in a way they can use information to improve instruction. Esther was a major part of that, so assigning those functions to other people means that we’re going to have to reduce services that those other people were doing.”
GUSD’s criteria for evaluating open positions say that services affecting the classroom will be the most protected.
“If we want to reduce some areas, or not, we’re going to have to make some hard decisions of what are our core services, and what can we get by without doing” while remaining compliant, Diaz said.
Trustee John Gurich said he approved the district’s plan to reduce services away from the classroom.
“The further we stay away from the kids and the support for the kids, is the best place to go,” he said.
Gurich said reductions should start at the district office level.
Rhoda Bress, a GUSD parent and school board candidate, agreed but said it’s not enough to promise to keep cuts away from students.
“This is really an opportunity that we need to grasp. We need to put every program, every activity on the table and look at how it is translating into support for our classrooms and student achievement,” Bress said.
The board needs to ask GUSD to spend money smarter, she said, and look at whether the number of district administrators can be reduced. She also suggested finding new revenue sources, including increasing enrollment by providing an academic program that will keep students in Gilroy schools.
Gurich, a physical education teacher in San Jose, said he might support class size reduction if it were a necessary last resort.
“It’s something you can absorb fairly easy as a teacher,” he said.
Bress said a thorough audit will tell whether that is a program that should go.
“If there’s ample proof – and I believe there is – that class size reduction has resulted in improving the classroom experience and student achievement, then that’s something that we need to try to save,” she said.
At this point, a salary reduction like that imposed in Fremont is not on the radar, Diaz said.
“Our people haven’t received – except for teachers – raises in the past two years, and have been picking up increasing health benefits, so in effect, they have been picking up salary decreases,” he said.
