No teachers lost their jobs, no athletic programs were cut, class sizes were not increased and all the bus routes are still intact. Still, the April 7 special meeting of the Fort Bragg Unified School District was a solemn affair, as all those possibilities were reluctantly put on a master list of possible cuts.
For the past several years, Fort Bragg schools managed to save, defer and shuffle their way out of serious cuts. But after republicans derailed Gov. Jerry Brown”s plan to put tax extensions on the June ballot, California schools are faced with the toughest choices in a generation. Brown is seeking to get extensions of Gov. Schwarzenegger”s tax cuts on the November ballot. School officials said that might be good news at Christmas, but likely not in time for cuts.
Superintendent Don Armstrong said the FBUSD”s “Boy Scout be prepared” plan which looked frugal a few months ago now looks “not conservative enough.”
Armstrong gave a 20-minute presentation that showed an increasingly darkening state budget picture. He put up the district”s nine priorities, apparently ranked as they are now valued. He ended by pointing out the actual choosing of priorities are up to the school board, which started the process with input from the 25 people gathered, most of whom are school employees — teachers, principals, a counselor, site council president — but no student or parent “general public” input.
The meeting was a bit more like an in-house staff gathering than a public meeting. People spoke from the audience, without giving their names, engaging in back-and-forth discussion with the school board and department heads (Robert”s Rules of Order demands that speakers identify themselves). In all the talk, few cutting ideas got support. Several people said increasing class sizes would be better than cuts to teachers or programs.
Armstrong provided a list of steps the district has already taken to reduce the budget. Every savings found came with an asterisk. For example, although there are 12 retirees and the district wants to freeze those positions, four are special education teachers whose positions will have to be filled by law. Others are single-subject teachers (such as a twelfth grade social studies or English teacher). These teachers work all day at this task and can”t be replaced by shuffling other positions around.
Armstrong said one piece of good news-bad news is that next year”s kindergarten class could be the smallest in several years. He said there are only 91 preschoolers currently in preschools. That means the district will likely be able to lower its kindergarten teacher corps from eight to seven and maybe six. The district currently has 167 kindergarten students taught by eight teachers. The bad news is that schools are funded by the number of students they educate, so fewer students means less money in another area.
Armstrong steered the discussion toward prioritizing and away from debate about specific programs or individuals. Much of the evening was spent talking about how to even make a list of people and programs that could be trimmed.
“I don”t know how you are going to come up with a priority list where you can find a million in cuts,” said Fort Bragg High Principal Allen Urbani. Urbani was reluctant to discuss staffing cuts and suggested opening up discussion of increased class sizes rather than “paying teachers less.”
“No solution is a good one….When you make a priority list, what is more important, teacher or custodian?
The answer is obvious, but you can only cut so many custodians…the work has to get done.” Urbani said.
The district cut a librarian position last year but had to reinstate the position less than a year later. Urbani indicated cutting into teacher pay and numbers would have consequences in and out of the classroom.
“It is already so terribly difficult for us to hire teachers, we pay less than other school districts,” Urbani said.
Board President Robert Hotchkiss reacted to Urbani”s “why” about cutting.
“You ask how much more do you want to cut? Nobody up here, probably nobody in the community wants to make any more cuts,” said Hotchkiss. “I don”t expect next year to be any better.”
Urbani nodded at this. During the first hour and a half of the meeting, there wasn”t anything that seemed to be a confrontation among those gathered, but how to decide when and where to cut?
Trustee Jennifer Owen argued for the creation of a comprehensive list of all areas where the district could choose whether to cut.
“We all know there is no way to make these cuts and not hurt the quality of education for our kids,” Owen said.
She said the district may be forced to make cuts which then could awaken people to what will be lost.
“Maybe then, the people will figure out there needs to be a solution at the Legislature,” said Owen.
For now, the depth of the budget crisis is all theoretical, although nobody sees next year, or the next, as good as this year. Armstrong said all the federal stimulus money is gone and with the present Congress, there”s no hope for more of that.
Armstrong said no more special meetings are planned about the budget issue, but the topic will be front and center for the foreseeable future. The state and school budgets are due in June, but state budgets have failed to be delivered on time in recent years, leaving schools waiting deep into summer.
Email Frank Hartzell at frankhartzell@gmail.com.
