Publication Date: Friday, March 05, 2004
SCHOOLS
District unrolls more budget cuts
District unrolls more budget cuts
(March 05, 2004) Some bright spots in grim picture
by Rachel Metz
The district's Spectra Art program and several staff positions are listed as possible cuts to next year's budget to make up for slinking property tax revenue growth.
Superintendent Mary Frances Callan unveiled a list of $1.2 million in reductions for next year's budget Wednesday night This is the second round of about $4.2 million in budget cuts. The board is expected to vote on the list at its next meeting Tuesday, March 9 to meet the state-mandated March 15 deadline for notifying teachers that could be laid off.
Initially, the board thought it would cut $3 million from the district's 2004-2005 $105 million budget due to lower-than-expected property tax revenue growth, an increase in employee benefit costs and rising student enrollment. But on Feb. 11, the district learned its property tax revenue growth was projected even lower at .23 percent. It also found it would have to contribute an additional $250,000 to the state's Public Employee Retirement System.
"These reductions, every one of them, hurts something or someone in this district. ... This was already an institution that ran on the lean side, that ran even though we had the dollars (and were) very careful those dollars went to the school sites," Superintendent Mary Frances Callan said.
The list unveiled Tuesday included cuts to several district employee positions, in addition to requiring classified district employees -- such as landscapers and custodians -- to take vacation time each year to avoid payouts for unused hours and deleting half a psychologist position.
The last list of proposed cuts included reducing two elementary school librarian positions, reducing per-student funding at elementary and high schools and eliminating several classified employee jobs.
The district has said it will try to re-assign any employees whose jobs might be in jeopardy. Teachers with multiple subject credentials could teach another subject, for example. Seniority should also play a part in the process.
Many community members and district employees spoke at the meeting against cuts to the Spectra Art program, district library staff and counseling services.
"Our Palo Alto students need our help and our support," Jordan Middle School guidance counselor Betty Krumboltz said in defense of district counselors.
The board might have a bright spot in the cuts, however, as the classified employees' union, administrators and some other district employees have said they'll take two unpaid days off. If this is agreed upon by those affected and approved by the board, it would replace cuts to several clerical positions in the district and save about $199,000. In February the district's teachers union refused to discuss furlough days.
Chuck McDonnell, president of the classified employees union, said management and classified employees came up with this idea when looking for ways to save jobs. He thinks it's a good one.
"What's amazing is a few clerical positions turned into almost 200,000," he said.
District officials could also breathe a little easier Wednesday after two key propositions passed in Tuesday's election. Two propositions on the ballot -- 57 and 58 -- were imperative for the school district to avoid deeper cuts. Propositions 57 and 58 approved a $15 billion state bond and mandated a balanced-budget measure, respectively. Both had to pass for either to become a law.
"I'm relieved that they passed, I'm relieved we're not going to face yet one more unexpected cut to our budget and six months of uncertainty as the state legislature decides what it's going to do," school board member Mandy Lowell said Wednesday morning.
If they hadn't passed, "we were told there were just going to be cataclysmic cuts to the state as a whole," district Deputy Superintendent Bob Golton said prior to Wednesday's board meeting.
But that won't stop the district from finding more ways to save money, Callan said Wednesday night. The district is banking on fund-raising groups the All Schools Fund and the Palo Alto Foundation for Education to make up the remaining $1.5 million. The groups recently volunteered to work together as a single fundraising group.
"We will still continue to look at every contract we have outside of this district, we will look at early retirement, we will look at utility bills, we will look at every single item we can to find new money or a new revenue stream," she said.
Rachel Metz can be e-mailed at rmetz@paweekly.com
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