Editorial: New jolt means all must try harder Editorial: New jolt means all must try harder (February 18, 2004)

Palo Alto district, teachers' union should convene talks on how best to cut budget with least damage -- including furlough days
Stunned Palo Alto school officials wasted no time last week in taking action after learning of a new $1.1 million-plus slam to next year's already reeling budget.

The district was already embroiled in how best to slash the budget by $3 million next year, and the added cut makes an already deep cut into a major wound. Now it has to cut $4.1 million.

The new financial blow comes in two parts: nearly $900,000 in reduced property-tax revenues and $250,000 in unexpected cost increases from the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS).

District officials got the $1.1 million bad news in a one-two punch last Wednesday, the property-tax projections in a meeting with Santa Clara County Assessor Larry Stone and the retirement cost increase from the state. Thursday they informed union leaders, principals and administrators and called an emergency school board meeting Friday morning.

The school board had just backed off from a dispute with the Palo Alto Educators' Association when it dropped a proposal for teachers and other staff to take two unpaid "furlough" days next year, saving an estimated $770,000. Both sides have privately acknowledged that the furlough idea might have been more delicately handled and perhaps the confrontation avoided.

Even with furlough days (or some equivalent), the district would still need to (1) cut another $750,000, (2) dip more deeply into reserve funds to avoid cuts this year and (3) advance more reserve funds against a pledge by parents to raise the remaining $1.5 million through a community fundraising campaign. Reserve funds have already been tapped significantly to avoid mid-year cuts for the past two years -- dropping from more than $13 million to just over $10 million, with more to come.

The community fundraising campaign could be easier said than done -- it's substantially more exciting to raise funds for a new science lab and program or new building or playfield than to fill up a gaping budget hole. The challenge will be to translate that "budget hole" into human and educational-program terms.

The district needs to continue to lay out options and seek feedback from parents and teachers on how best to minimize impacts on the classroom and curriculum.

Superintendent Mary Frances Callan and her staff offered a painful but sensible package of cuts last Tuesday night, but that was before they received news of the additional $1.1 million shortfall.

The most important element that everyone should look at -- district officials, teachers, staff, parents -- is how we can come together as a community the way we did to fight the threatened basic-aid funding last year. The power of a unified, determined community -- especially one with the intellectual resources of Palo Alto -- can be immense.

As a start, the Palo Alto Educators Association and district board and administration need to bury the hatchet over the furlough-days issue. There has been far too much finger-pointing, misunderstanding and bad feelings over this already, and it's getting in the way of getting to the best approach for the students, teachers and community.

At the very least, the association leadership and the board/administration should meet to discuss alternative ways of closing the deficit.

Those alternatives should not preclude furlough days, but there should be a crystal clear commitment that the furlough-day reduction in pay would not show up in retirement payments -- which would be an unfair double hit on the teachers retiring this coming year. And the union should stop acting like the whole budget problem would go away if a few perks for administrators were eliminated.

The community has a long history of support for the schools and teachers. And the highly dedicated teachers and staff are the ones who continue to make our district so outstanding.

Now is no time to battle over $500 car allowances. We have a multi-million-dollar problem that will only be solved with the active involvement of teachers, staff and parents, and with great leadership and sensitivity by the administration and board.

As big as they are, our challenges pale in comparison to those of many other districts. But some painful cuts will be necessary, and neither the school board nor administration deserve blame or criticism for this crisis.

If we approach this latest challenge as a unified school community, we can assure that the best and least harmful solutions are found.

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