| District faces $40 million deficit (3/08) | | Print | |
| Written by Rachel Hwang | |
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By March 15, the district distributed 535 pink slips to faculty members district-wide who may be laid off next year due to impending budget cuts. Pink slips serve as a preliminary warning for staff. No layoffs are finalized until May. At Lowell 12 pink slips were distributed across all departments based on program need and seniority, according to principal Andy Ishibashi. Pink slipped teachers declined to comment on the situation. Eight classroom teachers may eventually be laid off, according to a preliminary budget the School Site Council voted to approve on March 11. Many more will be laid off district-wide, according to Board of Education president Mark Sanchez. "With the governor’s proposals as they stand, we will be facing huge, huge layoffs,” he said. However, Lowell’s current budget does not reflect pending donations, other funding sources or any changes to the state’s budget cuts, which will not be finalized until August. "The thing that makes this so difficult is that there are so many unknowns," Lowell Alumni Association director of relations and development Terry Abad said. While the exact budget cut amount is not certain, one number is definite: California’s deficit of $4.8 billion. Under the proposed state budget, the district will face a cut of approximately $40 million and Lowell alone will lose $1.35 million. At the SSC meeting, members voted to cut supplies rather than teachers, from the 2008-2009 budget, according to School Site Council chair and math department head Tom Chambers. "What we’re trying to do is avoid lay-offs," he said. As a result, next year’s budget will leave only about $14,000 for supplies, instead of the usual $180,000 to $200,000. "That’s not even enough to pay for our Xerox machines," Chambers said. In the past, the LAA and Parent Teacher Student Association have remedied the shortage of funds with donations. The PTSA and the LAA have pledged $250,000 each, and the school has already received $151,211 in donations within the last eight months, an 18 percent increase from last year, according to PTSA president-nominee and parent Bob Lee. "Even with this additional funding, we are still facing an enormous deficit for the forthcoming year and probably every year thereafter,” he said. “Lowell families and friends will need to give generously to the extent they can." However, Lowell will need $1.35 million in donations and other types of outside funding in order to counteract the cuts, according to assistant principal Mary Streshly. With donations so far totaling at about $650,000, cuts will still have to be made. Insufficient funding could lead to larger class sizes, reduced elective offerings and limitations on the number of classes students may take, according to Ishibashi. The elimination of the seventh course option is "highly likely," he said. "We are trying our best with the many difficult decisions we are facing. It’s a very stressful time." Students are strongly opposed to these changes. “The budget cuts are a really big threat, and we need to worry about them because we are in danger of losing a lot of what we value, like student choice and opportunity,” SSC representative junior Roy Lee said. “Pink slips threaten to dramatically increase class sizes which we have been fighting to keep low for the past couple years at SSC meetings. We need to fundraise a lot of money if we want to keep class sizes low, so we’re really counting on parents and alumni to help us out in this crunch year.” Another possible source of funding is the city’s Rainy Day fund, an accumulation of spare city revenue from profitable years. At the March 11 protest against the budget cuts, organized by United Educators of San Francisco, Mayor Gavin Newsom ensured the public that about $31 million will be available from the city’s budget. “In San Francisco it goes without saying we are opposed to the governor's cuts,” Newsom said. “We have a $40 million problem and a $30 million solution. As for the Rainy Day fund, I am committed to sending it to the school district. But we should not have to do that.” In addition to the Rainy Day fund, the school district has put on hold about $9 million from the Proposition H fund, according to Abad. "We are very fortunate that these funds are available,” Sanchez said. Both the Rainy Day and the Prop. H funds are limited, however, covering a few years at most. After that point, Lowell would depend on outside funding, such as parent donations, to maintain its current conditions. PTSA funding currently supports seven teachers, or 41 classes, according to Chambers. Some are reluctant to continue to rely on parent support. “I’m a firm believer in the public school system,” Streshly said. “We’re really treading towards the idea of private school where parents have to cough up money to get good programs. I’m uncomfortable with the idea of them paying for our staffing.” About 40 percent of California’s budget is spent on the public school system, according to school board member Jill Wynns. Despite education being a large percentage of the state’s budget, California has one of the lowest per pupil expenditures, almost $2,000 less than the national average. “A lot of money is being spent on ridiculous projects by our local and state politicians rather than on the things that mean so much to many of us, such as education,” Bob Lee said. “California is said to be ranked 46th in the nation on how much money is spent per student. That is absolutely disgraceful.” To remedy the current situation, union building committee representative and Lowell science teacher Kathy Melvin suggested that the state reinstate the vehicle license fee, which would bring about $5 billion in revenue every year. Melvin also suggested a more progressive tax. Many Californians are pressuring the governor to remedy the deficit by raising taxes, including the many Bay Area teachers, administrators and principals who joined educators from across the state to march on the state capitol and protest the cuts on March 10. A March 11 rally in downtown San Francisco had a similar goal, “to place great pressure on the legislature in Sacramento” and to “let the pink-slipped know they are not alone,” union building committee representative Ken Tray said. “The governor must take responsibility for his fiscal failures, and he must find ways to raise revenues,” Tray added. “Tax is not a dirty word.” Whatever solutions are being discussed, the fact remains that the proposed budget cuts will leave schools statewide in a state of fiscal emergency. “It’s absurd,” School Board member Jill Wynns said. “We simply cannot operate with that big of a cut.” |
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to listen.
