After receiving the preliminary numbers from the district, the school advisory board is attempting to draw up a budget for next year.

After the School Site Council received the budget from the district on Feb. 20, the preliminary budget showed a deficit of about $2.3 million for next year, roughly the equivalent of salaries for 27 teachers.

Some teachers and parents want to fight the AP cuts. At the Feb. 24 Lowell Alumni Association Board meeting, the Board of Directors voted unanimously to authorize their president to send a letter of protest to the school district and to demand a meeting for negotiations. “The cuts are grossly disproportionate,” Lowell Alumni Association Executive Director Terence Abad said. “The school district is in tough financial condition, but Lowell should be treated the same as everyone else.”

A significant portion of the school’s record-high deficit comes from a specific source: the district’s change in the funding formula for Advanced Placement prep periods. Because the school administers the largest number of AP tests in the district, the recent change in district policy to make 36 AP exams pay for one prep period will cost the school

the district funded one prep period, which can be thought of as one class period, for every 20 AP exams. Although cuts are drastic across the district, schools that depend less heavily on AP funding are not facing the same impact. Cuts to the AP prep period account for $1.2 million of the $2.3 million deficit in the district shortfall in our school’s funding.

As most teachers teach five classes, five prep periods are the equivalent of the salary of one full-time teacher. According to the College Board, prep periods allow teachers with one or more AP sections to teach four classes, not the usual load of five, with one class period allotted to preparation and grading of the demanding AP curriculum. Cuts to AP funding have led to a 33 percent reduction of the portion of the budget that relates to the SFUSD’s AP funding formula, which accounts for one-sixth of the entire school budget. “The reality is they are not cutting everyone else by 33 percent,” Abad said.

Other parents and teachers agree that the AP cuts are not equitable. “The cuts are pretty unfair, particularly if they want us to keep AP prep periods, which cost money,” School Site Council chair and math department head Tom Chambers said. “I think they need to meet their contractual obligation to fund AP Preps or negotiate a change to the contract.”

During this time of crisis, the School Board is being forced into making unpopular decisions. “The AP cuts are an unfortunate necessity, we don’t see any other option,” Board of Education Commissioner Jill Wynns said. “Frankly, we can’t think of anything that isn’t worse. We have started specific and aggressive budget review.”

In addition to AP cuts, the district is no longer paying for several positions it funded in the past, such as the school nurse, half of the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corp position, a part-time counselor and two PE teachers. The nurse was previously funded by the violence prevention portion of Proposition H public education enrichment funds, but that section of the funds is not available this year. Prop H, passed in 2004, gives $60 million dollars to public education for enrichment of school’s programs annually until 2015.

Principal Andy Ishibashi held a town hall meeting at the school on March 3 to discuss budget priorities. Around 30 parents and SSC members attended the meeting and were given the opportunity to voice their opinion about which areas are most crucial to preserve next year. A survey was given in which parents could mark their personal priorities. The options included current class size, student’s eligibility to take seven classes and continuing to fund a variety of world languages.

At the community meeting, the Parent Teacher Student Association also pledged $300,000 to help with budget cuts, leaving $50,000 in their reserves. “The PTSA does not view their work as being completed with the recent contribution,” PTSA president Debbie Gee Wong said. “$300,000 is a very small portion of the $2.3 million deficit to the school for 2010-2011 school year. The PTSA is fully committed to continuing to aggressively fundraise in the next two months and asks that everyone in our community step up and make a contribution.”

Ishibashi held a similar town hall meeting for students on March 4, at 3:00 p.m., before a UESF rally. Around 30 students who attended were given a similar survey and told to check their priorities. “Personally, I hope we will still offer everything we do now, even if not as many sections,” Ishibashi said.

Students also reacted strongly to the school’s financial situation. “I think that students understand that there are cuts, but no one is explaining the details,” senior Thomas Tu said. “If they knew it was about something they could change — AP cuts — they would protest. The administration’s approach should be ‘How can we get more money?’, not how we deal with less.”

At the March 8 SSC meeting, Ishibashi shared the student and parent priority lists with the members. The PTSA commitment of $300,000 was also presented TO the SSC before attendees discussed the budget. The SSC hopes to approve a budget by March 22, as Ishibashi must report the school budget to the district by April 9. In light of the difficult budget situation this year, the district has given schools permission to spend Prop H money, originally meant for programs, on teachers.

The PTSA and parent groups are continuing to find ways to combat the budget cuts. Another town hall meeting will be held on March 24 at the school. Volunteers led by parents Josie Iselin and Debi Skaggs and seniors Oliver Fong and Thomas Tu will be reg running during the week of March 15th to pass out pink postcards publicizing the event.

Ishibashi expressed his support for finding ways to minimize the impact of the budget cuts. “I would like to spend everything we can – 100 percent — of the weighted student formula money on staffing.”

At the meeting, SSC members discussed where the cuts should be. “If we’re looking at cutting one-fourth of the teachers, we need to cut one-fourth of administration,” union building co-representative and science teacher Kathy Melvin said.

The impact of budget cutbacks on schools threaten to keep California’s national ranking at its current position of 49th in the state. The budget crisis has no easy solution in the near future. “If this were a one-time problem, we might be able to bridge it once,” Abad said. “But it’s a continuing problem.”