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At the Oct. 5 school-advisory board meeting, the members voted to consolidate a counseling position in order to balance the school budget which, as a result of lower enrollment and change in Advanced Placement funding, decreased overall.
Although, at the same Oct. 5 meeting, the School Site Council also recommended utilizing Parent Teacher Student Association funding for the position, principal Andy Ishibashi recommended that the PTSA save the money for next year, when the school will be facing worse cuts. “As principal of Lowell, I have a responsibility to prepare for what is to come,” Ishibashi said. “In preparation of one of the most difficult years we are going to face, I felt that I had to make the decision to consolidate this position.”
The budget, although drastically different from what had been anticipated last spring, was voted and approved by the SSC at the Oct. 5 meeting. The approved budget covers 6.3 for counselors, a reduction of a 1.0 position, which is equal to one full-time certified personnel. This cuts back the 7.3 positions in the 08-09 Weighted Student Formula budget approved in October of 2008. According to Lowell Alumni Association executive director Terence Abad, cuts were necessary because the approved budget in the previous spring did not take the reduced 09-10 budget into account. “The projected budget for this school year was based on projected enrollment,” Abad said. “In the full 10-Day-Count, we found out that we had 50 fewer students [than projected]. We had to address the problem of receiving about $150,000 less [due to the decreased enrollment]. We can’t overspend.”
There is little room to cut because more than 98% of the school budget is spent on salaries and benefits for personnel. “We are forced into a staffing reduction; we don’t have too many options,” Abad said.
Although the position was cut from the Weighted Student Formula budget by the SSC in order to balance the budget, at the same Oct. 5 meeting, they proposed a motion to create a priority list of funding allocations for the PTSA. The SSC voted that the counselor position would be a priority.
One reason consolidating a counseling position was considered was that it is difficult to remove a classroom teacher seven weeks into the school year. This is due to the fact that students already have established schedules and classes. “If we cut a teacher we would have to reallocate all his or her students to other classes,” Chambers said. “It would be really hard.”
Though the PTSA approved giving the school $250,000 last year, Ishibashi accepted $80,000 less at the executive board meeting, which would have been used to fund the position but will now roll over into funds for next year. As principal, Ishibashi had the final decision, since the SSC does not have jurisdiction over the PTSA money.
This budget shortfall had two specific causes that exacerbated the situation at the school, besides the overall economic difficulties affecting schools in California. Starting this fall semester, the district changed its policy for its AP funding contract, causing a shortfall in the ’09-’10 school budget. Before the contract modification, each AP teacher would receive a preparation period, which the district paid for by giving schools additional Weighted Student Formula funding, covering one prep period for every 20 AP exams. However, since the district revised the contract, the school now gets the same funding for every 24 exams, leading to an approximate $400,000 loss. According to School Site Council chair and math department head Tom Chambers, this modification particularly affected the school because of the large number of students in AP classes. “The change in funding from AP exams hit Lowell particularly hard because we give so many AP exams,” Chambers said.
The school is suffering this loss in addition to the loss of $150,000 from the district’s Weighted Student Formula funding, a result of this year’s lower enrollment. Although these factors made the consolidation necessary, some SSC members advocated using PTSA funds to save the position. “We have a member who is providing services to students,” union building co-representative and science teacher Kathy Melvin said. “It’s bad for staff morale and we have the money.”
For years, the PTSA has helped pay for positions the school WSF budget cannot cover. “The PTSA made a commitment to the school to fund $165,000, which was left over in the school fund, and an additional $250,000 to support the school in preserving programs and teaching positions,” PTSA president Debbie Gee Wong said. “Through this commitment, the PTSA has saved 5.2 faculty and staff this year, which we feel really good about.” The district operates based on a system where a full time position is defined as a 1.0, one class being equivalent to .2 of a position, as most teachers have five classes.
According to the SFUSD Teacher’s Contract, a consolidation is defined as an “involuntary transfer for the reason that there are more permanent teachers assigned to a site or program than the teacher allocation can support.” A consolidated teacher receives first pick of any available job in the district that fits his or her credential, and at the end of the year the teacher has prior consideration for open positions in the school he or she was transferred from. According to section 15.5.4 of the contract, no teacher can be consolidated for two years in a row.
Many SSC members believe that this year’s budget gaps are nothing compared to next year’s. In previous years, a city reserve fund, the Rainy Day Fund, has greatly helped with the district’s budget deficit. However, the Rainy Day Fund is almost depleted. It is likely that there will be little or no money left for schools to use next year, according to Melvin. This year the school district received 25% of the $98 million in the fund at the end of last year. Lowell accounts for roughly 5% of SFUSD enrollment. The school will face a proportional shortfall of about $750,000 next year without the Rainy Day Fund. “Next year we won’t have the protection of the Rainy Day Fund,” Abad said, assuming the state funding allocation will stay the same and the Rainy Day Fund will decrease.
It is difficult to be optimistic about the state budget, according to Chambers. With the economic downturn, state funds continue to decrease because capital gain and sales tax revenue decline. “When the market tanks, taxpayers can’t sell stocks for gain,” Chambers said. "State revenues and education support both take the hit.”
Melvin discussed the kind of changes the school is looking at next year as a result of budget cuts, which may mean cutting down to A-G requirements. A-G requirements are the necessary courses students must complete in order to be eligible to apply to a University of California. “We could go down to the bare minimum of courses,” Melvin said. “My fear is that what makes Lowell Lowell is the massive diversity of course offerings. Next year’s budget cuts are a direct attack at course offerings. Lowell still offers amazing classes and we don’t want to lose them.”
The administration, SSC, and Lowell Alumni Association are trying to brainstorm ways to prepare for next year’s cuts. “If I could, I would save as much of Prop. H money that rolls over and save the $39,000 in the discretionary block grant,” Ishibashi said. Proposition H, passed in 2004 by San Francisco voters, provides for $60 million dollars each year in public education enrichment funds until 2015. The discretionary block grant is a one-time, unrestricted allocation given by the California Department of Education.
Melvin talked about possible sources of funding the school could draw on. “There are other things that might bail us out,” she said. “Parents are looking at grants, and there is potential money in other district accounts. They are considering reassessing the budget.” The school may be able to procure grants from various sources. Fundraising from industry is a possibility, though it’s not a good way to run public education, according to Chambers.
SSC and LAA members are emphasizing the importance of asking parents to help support the school when it can no longer rely on the Rainy Day Fund. “The first thing is education,” Abad said. “We have to educate parents and alumni about how dire the situation will be next year. They have to understand before they will donate, so we really have to work on communication. Not enough is being done to simplify the situation, and if we don’t do that then how can people help us?”
Considering the condition of next year’s budget, it is vital that parents become more involved in fundraising, according to SSC member and parent Liz Perle. “Either we have to raise more money or spend less,” Perle said. “We have to mobilize the parent community to give what they can and pursue different avenues of funding to fill in the gaps.”
At the Oct. 5 school-advisory board meeting, the members voted to consolidate a counseling position in order to balance the school budget which, as a result of lower enrollment and change in Advanced Placement funding, decreased overall.
Although, at the same Oct. 5 meeting, the School Site Council also recommended utilizing Parent Teacher Student Association funding for the position, principal Andy Ishibashi recommended that the PTSA save the money for next year, when the school will be facing worse cuts. “As principal of Lowell, I have a responsibility to prepare for what is to come,” Ishibashi said. “In preparation of one of the most difficult years we are going to face, I felt that I had to make the decision to consolidate this position.”
The budget, although drastically different from what had been anticipated last spring, was voted and approved by the SSC at the Oct. 5 meeting. The approved budget covers 6.3 for counselors, a reduction of a 1.0 position, which is equal to one full-time certified personnel. This cuts back the 7.3 positions in the 08-09 Weighted Student Formula budget approved in October of 2008. According to Lowell Alumni Association executive director Terence Abad, cuts were necessary because the approved budget in the previous spring did not take the reduced 09-10 budget into account. “The projected budget for this school year was based on projected enrollment,” Abad said. “In the full 10-Day-Count, we found out that we had 50 fewer students [than projected]. We had to address the problem of receiving about $150,000 less [due to the decreased enrollment]. We can’t overspend.”
There is little room to cut because more than 98% of the school budget is spent on salaries and benefits for personnel. “We are forced into a staffing reduction; we don’t have too many options,” Abad said.
Although the position was cut from the Weighted Student Formula budget by the SSC in order to balance the budget, at the same Oct. 5 meeting, they proposed a motion to create a priority list of funding allocations for the PTSA. The SSC voted that the counselor position would be a priority.
One reason consolidating a counseling position was considered was that it is difficult to remove a classroom teacher seven weeks into the school year. This is due to the fact that students already have established schedules and classes. “If we cut a teacher we would have to reallocate all his or her students to other classes,” Chambers said. “It would be really hard.”
Though the PTSA approved giving the school $250,000 last year, Ishibashi accepted $80,000 less at the executive board meeting, which would have been used to fund the position but will now roll over into funds for next year. As principal, Ishibashi had the final decision, since the SSC does not have jurisdiction over the PTSA money.
This budget shortfall had two specific causes that exacerbated the situation at the school, besides the overall economic difficulties affecting schools in California. Starting this fall semester, the district changed its policy for its AP funding contract, causing a shortfall in the ’09-’10 school budget. Before the contract modification, each AP teacher would receive a preparation period, which the district paid for by giving schools additional Weighted Student Formula funding, covering one prep period for every 20 AP exams. However, since the district revised the contract, the school now gets the same funding for every 24 exams, leading to an approximate $400,000 loss. According to School Site Council chair and math department head Tom Chambers, this modification particularly affected the school because of the large number of students in AP classes. “The change in funding from AP exams hit Lowell particularly hard because we give so many AP exams,” Chambers said.
The school is suffering this loss in addition to the loss of $150,000 from the district’s Weighted Student Formula funding, a result of this year’s lower enrollment. Although these factors made the consolidation necessary, some SSC members advocated using PTSA funds to save the position. “We have a member who is providing services to students,” union building co-representative and science teacher Kathy Melvin said. “It’s bad for staff morale and we have the money.”
For years, the PTSA has helped pay for positions the school WSF budget cannot cover. “The PTSA made a commitment to the school to fund $165,000, which was left over in the school fund, and an additional $250,000 to support the school in preserving programs and teaching positions,” PTSA president Debbie Gee Wong said. “Through this commitment, the PTSA has saved 5.2 faculty and staff this year, which we feel really good about.” The district operates based on a system where a full time position is defined as a 1.0, one class being equivalent to .2 of a position, as most teachers have five classes.
According to the SFUSD Teacher’s Contract, a consolidation is defined as an “involuntary transfer for the reason that there are more permanent teachers assigned to a site or program than the teacher allocation can support.” A consolidated teacher receives first pick of any available job in the district that fits his or her credential, and at the end of the year the teacher has prior consideration for open positions in the school he or she was transferred from. According to section 15.5.4 of the contract, no teacher can be consolidated for two years in a row.
Many SSC members believe that this year’s budget gaps are nothing compared to next year’s. In previous years, a city reserve fund, the Rainy Day Fund, has greatly helped with the district’s budget deficit. However, the Rainy Day Fund is almost depleted. It is likely that there will be little or no money left for schools to use next year, according to Melvin. This year the school district received 25% of the $98 million in the fund at the end of last year. Lowell accounts for roughly 5% of SFUSD enrollment. The school will face a proportional shortfall of about $750,000 next year without the Rainy Day Fund. “Next year we won’t have the protection of the Rainy Day Fund,” Abad said, assuming the state funding allocation will stay the same and the Rainy Day Fund will decrease.
It is difficult to be optimistic about the state budget, according to Chambers. With the economic downturn, state funds continue to decrease because capital gain and sales tax revenue decline. “When the market tanks, taxpayers can’t sell stocks for gain,” Chambers said. "State revenues and education support both take the hit.”
Melvin discussed the kind of changes the school is looking at next year as a result of budget cuts, which may mean cutting down to A-G requirements. A-G requirements are the necessary courses students must complete in order to be eligible to apply to a University of California. “We could go down to the bare minimum of courses,” Melvin said. “My fear is that what makes Lowell Lowell is the massive diversity of course offerings. Next year’s budget cuts are a direct attack at course offerings. Lowell still offers amazing classes and we don’t want to lose them.”
The administration, SSC, and Lowell Alumni Association are trying to brainstorm ways to prepare for next year’s cuts. “If I could, I would save as much of Prop. H money that rolls over and save the $39,000 in the discretionary block grant,” Ishibashi said. Proposition H, passed in 2004 by San Francisco voters, provides for $60 million dollars each year in public education enrichment funds until 2015. The discretionary block grant is a one-time, unrestricted allocation given by the California Department of Education.
Melvin talked about possible sources of funding the school could draw on. “There are other things that might bail us out,” she said. “Parents are looking at grants, and there is potential money in other district accounts. They are considering reassessing the budget.” The school may be able to procure grants from various sources. Fundraising from industry is a possibility, though it’s not a good way to run public education, according to Chambers.
SSC and LAA members are emphasizing the importance of asking parents to help support the school when it can no longer rely on the Rainy Day Fund. “The first thing is education,” Abad said. “We have to educate parents and alumni about how dire the situation will be next year. They have to understand before they will donate, so we really have to work on communication. Not enough is being done to simplify the situation, and if we don’t do that then how can people help us?”
Considering the condition of next year’s budget, it is vital that parents become more involved in fundraising, according to SSC member and parent Liz Perle. “Either we have to raise more money or spend less,” Perle said. “We have to mobilize the parent community to give what they can and pursue different avenues of funding to fill in the gaps.” |
