The Gilroy Unified School District Board of Education outlined and approved its budget for the year and certified the 2013-14 unaudited actual ending balance at the Sept. 4 meeting. Trustees also approved therapeutic classroom support for students with emotional disabilities, hourly rate increases for elementary school piano accompanists, professional development training for teachers and a memorandum of understanding between GUSD and Fresno State to allow its nursing students to do their practicums within the district.
Board approves 2014-15 budget, certifies 2013-14 unaudited actual balance
The Board approved its budget for the current school year, which includes a general fund totaling more than $98.5 million certified and classified salaries and employee benefits amount to just over $77.1 million, which may increase following labor negotiations which start Sept. 9. The unrestricted reserve for the year is expected to change following the negotiations.
The district has already accounted for 100 percent of its Local Control Funding Formula revenue—all of the Gap Funding provided by the California Department of Finance—which totals $8.4 million. Projections for the coming two years are conservative with $4.5 million estimated for 2015-16 and $4.9 million for 2016-17 due to uncertainty with the state’s economy and question marks raised by the Dept. of Finance.
“They’ve already brought these funding gaps downward,” Assistant Superintendent Alvaro Meza said. “What that means is the rug has been basically pulled underneath us a little bit already. If we were counting for full revenue in the multi year projection, we would be spending that and immediately turning around and figuring out where to reduce it from.”
Meza said the projections will be revised following a proposal from Gov. Jerry Brown scheduled for January 2015.
GUSD’s Certificate of Participation payment of $1.2 million is being funded out of developer fees. For example, the newly planned San Ysidro Courts apartment complex, Meza said, is projected to produced $900,000 for the district.
“With the activity in Gilroy and the growth in Gilroy, we see developer fees increasing,” Meza said.
Moving forward, the district will also have to pitch in more money for employee benefits, including the California State Teacher’s Retirement System which will add $500,000 to this category in the 2015-16 budget and an additional $1.3 million in 2016-17.
The total revenue of the district’s general fund came to $91,268,567 for the 2013-14 year—about 80 percent of which is state related. The expenditures total $91,023,616 with certificated and classified salaries and employee benefits accounting for around 81 percent. A revenue variance of $5,389,152 which district staff said was due to the projected amount being on the restricted side of the general fund, but have since become unrestricted due to transition of revenue limits which occurred through the LCFF. The restricted part of the general fund is for designated for a specific purpose, while the unrestricted money is general purpose dollars to be spent at GUSD’s discretion.
GUSD had projected expenses of $60,733,865, but came in under budget at $59,717,879. A 5.10 percent unrestricted reserve was expected for the year, but GUSD came in at a better rate of 6.38 percent.
Meza said some of the entries in the 2013-14 budget were due to a transition of revenue limits to the LCFF. He said there was a lot of accounting done which happens once every four years as required by the state.
The Board also unanimously approved a resolution for the 2014-15 school year’s calculated Gann Limit, which Meza said the district was not projected to exceed. The Gann Amendment, also known as Proposition 4 passed in November 1979, requires each government agency and school district in the Golden State to annually adopt an expenditure limitation with adjustments due to annual changes in population and the consumer price index.
Therapeutic Classroom Support contact approved
Last year, Rebekah’s Children’s Services provided therapeutic services for five classrooms at Christopher High as well as Brownell and Glen View and GUSD has seen a need to expand the services to Gilroy High as well this year. The cost was previously paid for by Medi-Cal dollars, but RCS is no longer able to use the money for a single program and must make them available district-wide for students needing these services. The proposal from RCS, however, came in well above what the district anticipated—a figure of $560,000 was mentioned, though it wasn’t the highest proposal—and now GUSD is considering creating it’s own program. It will take time for the program to become established, however, and Superintendent Debbie Flores stressed the need to be providing these services for students who have them outlined in their individualized education programs. In the interim, the Board approved a contract for RCS to provide one clinician to provide the services to Glen View and Brownell at a cost of $10, 000 per month. The district is still seeking someone to provide interim services at the high school and hopes to have its own staff in place within the next two weeks.
Piano accompanists receive pay raise
GUSD unanimously approved a 40 percent pay increase for the district’s elementary school choir piano accompanist, raising the hourly rate for this position from $14 to $20 per hour. The new rate was reached after district staff examined what neighboring districts were paying—between $12.50 and $16.72 an hour—through phone and online research.
“We thought that was a reasonable increase, especially in light of what the other districts are paying an elementary (piano accompanist),” Flores said.
“Whether they’re elementary or secondary, they’re skilled musicians and we all really appreciate the fact that we have such a good music program in this district and this is part of that,” added GUSD Board Trustee Pat Mitgard.
The district also recently raised the rate for high school accompanists to $35 per hour.
Board approves professional development, MOU with Fresno State and contract for asset inventory
The board approved the memorandum of understanding between GUSD and the Santa Clara County Office Education for the district’s teachers to participate in the Curriculum Leadership Council for the upcoming school year. Before approving the motion, GUSD Board Trustee Tom Bundros stressed the training needed to be as effective as possible.
“This takes teachers out of the classroom—that’s a hit all by itself—nevermind what we’re paying for it, nevermind what we’re paying for a substitute,” he said. “We’re taking teachers out of the classroom which really we should be very respectful about. These training sessions should be of the highest effectiveness.”
The staff development committee has requested teachers take a survey to rate evaluate the effectiveness of practices like this and will then review it and report back to the board with its findings.
GUSD also approved a memorandum of understanding with the Fresno State College of Health and Human Services to allow students to do their practicums within the district. The action will have no fiscal impact on the district’s budget.
The Board approved a contract for a state recommended full district asset inventory with a Los Gatos based firm for $23,350. The inventory will cover capital and non-captial assists including Chromebooks, iPads, netbooks and more and will provide a data file, prepare the Governmental Accounting Standards Boards spreadsheet and reconcile the balances to the audit report.
The next GUSD Board meeting will take place at 7 p.m. Sept. 19.
