Invest in our children
Editor: I teach economics at the high school and attended the school board meeting on Nov. 17, 2009. At that meeting, a non-prioritized list of possible district budget reductions was passed out to those who were in attendance. Under consideration was a plan to cover possible midyear cuts and to balance the 2010/2011 school district budget. Added to the list at the meeting was the elimination of all sports and extracurricular programs at the high school and middle school. The stated objective of the school board was to identify $2.3 million of cuts, $1,026 million of which will be implemented in the 2010/2011 school year with the balance to be used to cover anticipated reductions in local tax revenues and expected midyear cuts from the state.
By law, the school board has to balance its budget with a mandate to do whatever it takes to maintain core subjects, English, math, science, history, etc. However, a high school education does not consist solely of core academic subjects. Athletics, the arts, extra curricular activities, counseling, and intervention programs for English Language Learners and students-at-risk are critical to a child’s growth and development. Unfortunately, all or some of these programs may be reduced further or eliminated. Five school days and bus transportation are also subject to being reduced or eliminated.
Currently at the high school, there are no more full-time vice principals, and K-12 teachers continue to pay for school supplies out of their own pockets. According to a survey conducted in 2004, teachers subsidized the district regarding school supplies in the amount of $150,000 plus during that year. Based on conversations with colleagues, it has probably gone up. In addition, teachers and classified personnel have agreed to give up a pre-approved 2 percent raise in an effort to mitigate the district’s financial crisis. Administrators have done the same.
Teachers, classified personnel, and administrators are already “giving at the office.” If parents want to preserve the opportunity for their children to receive a good education and be prepared for the workplace in the 21st century, it is time for them to step up to the plate and help out also. The concept of a completely free quality public education in California began to erode when Proposition 13 was passed 31 years ago, which cut funding for public education 57 percent!
By contributing as little as $3.65 a day per student; families with children in our district schools can eliminate this projected deficit. I have done the math: assuming a deficit of $2.3 million divided by 4,100 students in the district, $561 a student per year or $3.12 a day would eliminate the need for cuts and avoid an educational catastrophe.
District staff, some parents and some community members-at-large are already helping to support our schools. The time has come for ALL parents, including students, to pitch in financially and become part of the solution. As indicated on a bumper sticker I saw recently, “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance!” As interested parties whose children attend our public schools, can you honestly afford not to take action? If nothing is done, our educational infrastructure and critical programs will begin to unravel and the cost in terms of quality and lost opportunity for our students will be dire beyond reckoning. I plan to give this problem some thought over Thanksgiving break. I hope that you will also.
Keeping in mind what is best for children, I made my own cuts. My objective was to preserve our educational infrastructure in terms of programs and key personal as opposed to eliminating them entirely whenever possible. Here is what I came up with:
Best Case: Elliminate
All three teacher buy-back days $242,361
50 percent reduction of summer school $162,500
High School Independent Study $100,000
Reduce Bus transportation by 60 percent $200,000
Teacher giveback of 2 percent Raise $360,000
$1,064,861
Worst Case: In addition,
Eliminate
5 School days $583,725
Mid-day K-6 intervention program $105,279
Staff Development Title II $50,000
Senior Project at High School $13,878
Teen Parent afternoon childcare $30,000
Creekside Afternoon program $78,000
I asked all my students who have paying jobs how many of them could get by with a 57 percent of cut in wages. I also asked if they thought their parents could support their families if they took a 57 percent cut in income. In both instances, not a single student raised his or her hand. Well, California’s public school system took a 57 percent cut in revenue when Proposition 13 passed in the late 1970s. At that time, responsibility for public school funding shifted from local communities to Sacramento. Those in the business of educating California’s children “sucked it up” and “made it work” at great personal sacrifice. Services were reduced, programs were cut, class sizes were increased, and the wages and benefits of both teachers and administrators took a hit. Because of this, the public was under the impression it was business as usual. Well, it wasn’t, and now the chickens are coming home to roost. With the state currently facing a $10 billion deficit with more deficits on the horizon, the days of free quality public school education supported by Sacramento are over.
To put this in perspective, the budget for school supplies at the high school has remained the same for over 25 years. In 1982, the student population at the high school was 1,100. Today, it is 1,530. In a space of 25 years, the purchasing power of a dollar has been cut roughly in half. Eight years ago, four of my students did a survey of how much teachers in this district pay out of their own pockets for school supplies critical to the classroom. The average came to $632 per teacher for a total of $158,000 per year. More likely than not, this figure has gone up since the survey was taken.
My question to the community is this: Why is it that teachers are willing to pay more than $632 a year out of their own pockets for Sonoma’s children when voters have chosen not to come up with $91 a year? This is what many couples spend going out to dinner and a movie on a weekend. Before you answer, keep in mind the only option available under state law to supplement public school funding is the parcel tax, which requires a two-thirds majority of votes to pass. Also keep in mind senior citizens had the choice under Measure E of opting out of paying this parcel tax, which included provisions for an independent committee of citizens to monitor the expenditure of these funds. By law, this district will probably be required to cut an additional $1.2 million from next year’s school budget. Aren’t our children worth it? Teachers think so. Why doesn’t the community?
David E. Donnelley
Sonoma
Unrealistic standards
Editor: I have taught for over 25 years in California and have been in California public schools for the past 20 of those years, mostly as a kindergarten teacher. My usual school work day starts at 7:45 a.m. and ends at about 5:45 p.m. I am with students from 8:15 a.m. to 2:55 p.m. After school, I am prepping lessons, attending meetings and cleaning. I also work 3 or 4 hours on the weekend in my classroom. I work on school things at home in the evenings.
The custodian has 20 minutes to empty the trash and sweep and mop my room every third day. Daily dusting, sweeping, disinfecting the sink, drinking fountain and tables is done by me. This is necessary. Kinders do things like spit on the table and draw in it. During the school day, I have a four-minute lunch. About 15 minutes of that is spent getting my kinders through the lunch line and preparing the classroom for their return. I usually, not always, get a five- to 15-minute break at 10:15 a.m. In addition to the time I put in, the general public is unaware of; I also spent $834.36 of my own money on supplies this year. The parent-teacher organization reimbursed me for $400 of the money I spent. This money went to everything from sand for sand painting to glitter glue for a special project.
California’s schools have slipped since I started teaching in 1976. Jarvis-Gann pulled funding, short-sighted voters have not given Sonoma children the two-thirds yes votes needed to pass school bond measures, and now the Governor wants to kick us while we’re down – 47th in pupil spending in the nation already!
Then on TV, I heard a San Jose United School District board member say, “There were 30 children in a class when I went to school and it didn’t hurt me.” A board member! WRONG! It will hurt. It will hurt a lot.
Many things have changed since you or your child went to school!
Demographics: They have changed.
When I started teaching in Sonoma Valley, I had 30 students. Out of those 30, maybe four did not speak English. Now it is not unusual for an English-only speaking teacher, in my district, to greet her new crop of kinders and find that only two or three speak English.
Also, children with special needs are included in the regular classroom population now. I love them dearly and believe in most cases, this is the right thing to do. They do add to my paper work, and I have to attend extra meetings and communicate with the parents and sometimes manage and even train the child’s full-inclusion aide. As a kindergarten teacher, I am often the first one to realize a child needs extra support and therefore, I spend the year managing a classroom and a special needs child on my own.
Personnel: I no longer have the support I had when I started teaching.
When I started teaching kindergarten I had 30 students AND I shared a classroom with another credentialed teacher. I had my students for 3-1/2 hours, then hers came in and I supported her. I also had 1-1/2 hours of aide time. I was able to do four small groups of targeted instruction every day. I had myself, my fellow teacher, a trained aide who saw the children every day and knew them, and maybe a parent volunteer. I was able to have each child do four, 20 minute, targeted instruction, with adult support, stations DAILY.
Now, I have 20 students for 6-1/2 hours a day. This is a long day for a 5 year old. I have no partner teacher. I have to stop instruction to tie a shoe, comfort a crier, deal with discipline, answer the telephone, etc. My partner used to do this. I get 50 minutes of aide time, four times a week.
I can do targeted, small group instruction with myself, an aide who works with the children daily and knows them, sometimes a parent, and an “independent” group. Yes, I have fewer children, but I’ve still got high, average, low and remediation students. I can get in two, targeted instruction, with adult supervision, 20-minute groups, four times a week.
Standards: As my available personnel has decreased, standards have increased.
Kindergarten is NOT what you remember folks! For example, kinders need to leave my classroom reading (I see the dog. I can run.), writing (I lik cande.), and being able to count to, name and write their numbers to 30. They are also supposed to exit my classroom naming, producing the sound of, recognizing, and correctly writing, all upper and lower case letters. It would look a lot like first grade if you’ve been away from classrooms for a while.
Now, let’s get to what has NOT changed, and yet is ignored in all the rhetoric; and that is: Who a 5 year old is!
Nature : The physical and mental development of the average 5 year old.
• Personal/Social Behavior: The average kinder wants to please. They are still learning very basic classroom and social skills, such as: waiting – for your turn or to get your shoe tied after the story, sharing, not always getting what you want, not interrupting, saying, “ Please” and “ Thank you” and following directions. Some still cry because they miss Mommy and they need comforting. Some have to learn not to hurt others. Dealing with a child about his/her behavior is one-on-one.
• Neurological/ Motor Growth: The average kindergartner can still have the occasional toileting “accident.” Some still need a nap. Their eyes can’t track left to right smoothly. Many still hold a pencil in their fist. Their attention spans are short. The average lesson has to be about 20 minutes and has to involve lots of interaction.
• Language Development: Highly variable. Some children talk like little adults and have a fabulous vocabulary. Others have a very limited vocabulary. Some think swear words are just part of every day language. Some are hearing English for the first time. Some haven’t figured out some basic language conventions. “Him gotted more’n me.” Some still can’t produce letter sounds correctly ( r = w, th = f). Some do it all! “Him dotted mowen me.”
• Overall Adaptive Behavior: the ability to put knowledge into action: This varies hugely. Children develop at different rates physically, emotionally, and mentally. The standards do not take this into consideration. Every year, I have at least one child who thinks the white pencil is not working because it doesn’t show up on white paper. I have children who have to be taught how to blow their nose. Hold the tissue over your nose. Now close your mouth and blow the air out your nose. They have various amounts of experience in the world and various levels of physical/mental maturity for processing experience. “Is it tomorrow yet?” is a common question. I have had a child wake up from a nap and ask for breakfast. I could go on and on.
Nurture: How a child is raised.
Some 5 year olds come to me with lots of positive experiences. They have traveled, gone to a quality preschool, their parents read to them. These parents are responsible and loving. They know how to discipline and are teaching their child responsibility and consideration of others. This kind of nurturing generally creates an amenable, well-socialized child who can count to 30, read at an emergent level, and has an excellent vocabulary. I also get incoming kinders who have witnessed the acrimonious dissolution of their parent’s relationship, seen way too much uncensored media – sex, horror, violence – while often much loved, are only properly cared for sporadically. Often these children often can’t count past 5, have never held a pair of scissors, don’t realize when they’re holding a book upside down, and lack basic social training – first you hit, then you blame the injured party.
Let me summarize. Since I started teaching kindergarten, my support in the classroom has been cut by more than 80 percent. Expectations on what I should get a 5 year old to do have greatly increased. The demographics have changed. I have NO control over the nurturing my students receive before they come to me. I have no control over nature. Nature has not changed.
I didn’t even mentioned our essentially outdoor bathrooms with no warm water to encourage hand washing, or our old, crumbling, patchwork classrooms, the fact we have more children with medical problems – life-threatening peanut allergies, insulin dependent diabetics, etc. … and only one R.N. – she is responsible for 500 students and 50 employees – for the entire district, etc., ad nauseum.
This is the current state of affairs from where I sit, and now we are facing even more cuts. I cannot imagine how I could possibly provide quality instruction to a third again the number of students that I am responsible for now. I feel like the sword of Damocles is hanging over our heads!
After much thought, I feel the fairest place to cut is number of school days. Everyone keeps their job, but suffers a pay cut. Utility costs are cut, perhaps maintenance can work on a day children are not present, and most importantly, we can save class size reduction for the little ones who are expected to accomplish so much, despite their tender years.
Please, protect class size reduction. Thank you for your consideration and concern for our children.
Maurine Whisenand-Solomonson
Sonoma