Superintendents ponder doomsday prophecy
By Joann Groff joann@theacorn.com

Chuck Weis, superintendent of Ventura County schools, kicked off a fivedistrict meeting addressing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget- which cuts about $4.8 billion from schools- by firing up the crowd spilling out of the Thousand Oaks High School Performing Arts Center.

"We've been smacked in the face with the reality that California schools are some of the most underfunded schools in the nation," Weis said. "The fat has already been cut, the muscles atrophied, the flesh stripped and they are beginning to cut into the bone."

The meeting, which brought together the superintendents of Conejo Valley, Las Virgenes, Oak Park, Moorpark and Simi Valley school districts, was hosted by volunteer group Californians Organized to Rescue Education and the 12th District PTA.

The governor's budget- in his "Year of Education," CVUSD Superintendent Mario Contini pointed out- calls for districts to cut 10 percent of their budgets across the board, or about $4.8 billion.

Schwarzenegger has proposed the cost-of-living allowance, which was anticipated to be increased by 4 percent next year, be decreased by 2.4 percent.

He also wants a 6.5 percent adjustment to special programs like special education and a suspension of Proposition 98 funds, the minimum amount the state is supposed to earmark for education each year.

"We, like you, are here this afternoon because we are personally distressed that we may not have the resources we need," said Kathryn Scroggin, Simi Valley's superintendent. "Cuts to education affect the quality of everyday life for every single one of our communities."

Scroggin said the estimated budget shortfall for 2008/2009 for the five districts totals $27.5 million, including the governor's budget, declining enrollment and automatic annual increases in expenses.

The breakdown for budget shortfall is $8 million for CVUSD, $7.2 for SVUSD, $6.8 million for LVUSD, $3.5 million for MUSD and $2 million for OPUSD.

More than 67,000 students make up the five districts.

Scroggin discussed the difficult prospect of laying off teachers. She said in addition to the pain of having to let them go, losing them would result in an increase in class size and a reduction in course offerings.

David Pollock, past president of the California School Boards Association, said March 15 layoff letters were mailed and more will go out May 15.

The governor is to release a revised budget around May 9 or 10, which the CSBA is hoping will reduce the number of notices that will be sent out that month.

"Sometimes I feel like I'm making 'Sophie's Choice' here," said MUSD Superintendent Ellen Smith. "Which employee, who serves our students well, do I have to give up? It's a horrible position to be in."

Other areas of consideration are the reduction of counselors, psychologists, nurses and deans, which would increase wait times and reduce access.

It will also decrease staff members assigned to maintain student discipline and instructional improvement, impacting the school's learning environment, Scroggin said.

A reduction of classified employees would mean less maintenance of facilities; less instructional support in kindergarten, special education and Englishlanguage learner classes; and fewer library staff and computer technicians. The districts are also looking at less funding for transportation, summer school programs, music, physical education and science programs and extracurricular activities.

"Some of these programs are what keeps kids coming to school each day," said Tony Knight, Oak Park's superintendent. "I look at these budgets the principals have now and I don't know how these schools function."

Rose Hoberg has kids in three Moorpark schools and runs an art program at another.

"The art program is typically funded by the PTA, but we've heard they are being asked to fund other things now," Hoberg said. "We're not sure what's going to happen."

The last consideration was school closure, which is "nothing any of the districts want to do," Knight said. Conejo Valley Unified voted last month to close two elementary schools in the 2009 school year.

In order to address the public education funding crisis, Smith said, the districts' greatest needs are adequate funding, stable funding and local authority of use for funding.

"There's this wild fluctuation in funding each year," he said. "We live in this boomorbust environment. Funding is so regulated that when things are tough we have no control on a local level on how to help ourselves... Let us do our job."

Acorn Bits rn Bits

Districts statewide have been asked to cut 10 percent of their budgets across the board, which is about $4.8 billion in cuts. That's the equivalent of:

•Shutting down every school in the state for about one month

•Laying off 107,000 teachers

•Increasing class size 35 percent, although California already has one of the highest average class sizes in the nation

•Laying off 137,000 education support professionals

•Cutting $24,000 from every classroom in the state