“Educational system is broken,” says trustee

“The governor’s proposed budget is going to have a dramatic effect on all California schools,” said Sonoma Valley Unified School District Superintendent Barbara Young at the board of trustees’ meeting Tuesday evening. She said that a lot of decisions have to be made by March 15, without even knowing what the state is going to do, and she emphasized that the cuts the board would be recommending were evenly spread so that everyone would feel a share of the pain and no one sector would bear the brunt of it. She said the district would need to form a District Reconfiguration Task Force to oversee the balancing act, maintaining her belief that a viable budget will result.
The discussion was brief. Barbara Clementino, President of the High School Boosters, said, “It really isn’t possible to continue to look to the few families to continue to support the many. We’re 300 funders out of 1,000. Something needs to be put in place so the burden is shared more uniformly.” The student representative Nathaniel Lee suggested, among other things, doubling fees for sports, drama and band. “You have to crack down and get more people to pay their fees.”
Trustee Nicole Abate Ducarroz said, “I think we’ve got a marketing problem. Most parents don’t realize what things cost.” But trustee Helen Marsh said, “What have we been doing for the last four years if not trying to get our word out? But there are some people who are just not listening. There’s the hospital, the immigrant debate, sub-prime mortgages, fear of the housing market collapsing, the presidential debate. We have done everything we can. We need to keep doing it. But, we still don’t have the money!” Ominously, as she spoke the overhead lights began flickering off and on. “We have to look at structural changes,” she said. “There is something wrong with our society and our system. Our educational system is broken. Our health system is broken. What are we going to do?”
The consensus was that they would do what they had to do and that was all they could do. They voted to pass the motion to accept the budgetary changes, “as a framework,” said Young, reminding the audience that they were cutting portions of an entire budget, not cutting entire programs.
The board approved a 2008-09 state categorical program adjustment estimated at $325,000, based on reductions of 6.1 to 6.7 percent in State categorical programs, and immediate site reserve of 10 percent on all 2007-08 State categorical budgets for unexpected reductions.
Reinstatement of essential programs and budget reserves will take approximately $300,000, of which $50,000 will restore District reserve, and $250,000 will restore high school and middle school sports and K-12 library staffing.
Further adjustments would be as follows:
$75,000 Reorganize administrators
$40,000-$57,000 Reduce library hours by 20 percent
$50,000 Reduce transportation costs
$105,000 Transfer some custodial costs to Maintenance and Operation
$14,000 Increase athletic fees by 25 percent
$22,000 Reduce overall k-12 sports and co-curricular allocation by 10 percent
More work remains. The task force is to develop a plan that could include school closures, school reconfiguration, and changes inschool calendars and school assignment/attendance areas.