Budget/Taxes

With the Davis School district now facing a $5.65 million deficit, the district is prepared to order layoff notices to 102 employees including at least 80 teachers 22 classified staff.  It is a scene eerily reminiscent of 2008 when numerous positions and programs were on the chopping block.

Even with expected concessions from the employees, the district is facing devastating and catastrophic cuts.  State law requires that these notices be given in writing to all employees to be laid off by March 15.  The final resolution will be presented for approval at the February 18, 2010 Board meeting.

I have spent too many columns attempting to convince teachers that they needed to make concessions in order to save jobs.  I am sure this has angered many teachers out there that feel, as I do, that they do not get paid enough for their work.  In fact, I believe most public employees probably feel that way.

Unfortunately, right now we do not live in a time of plenty.  We have to prioritize our spending.  So it comes down to this, the city of Davis is planning to extend its current half-cent sales tax.  The city of Davis to this point has not laid off a single employee.  The school district is going to layoff 68 teachers this year along with 20 other positions.  These cuts will devastate the school counselors.  This is on top of layoffs last year and forced retirements and transfers the year before stemming from pink slips and proposed layoffs.

The Davis Joint Unified School Board last night heard Bruce Colby’s budget projections along with the plan put forward by Superintendent James Hammond that would eliminate 88 overall position, including 68 teachers and half of the counselors in the district.  While the news on that front was bleak, the good news appears to be that both the Classified and Certificated employees are moving towards the acceptance of some concessions.

However, as DTA President Ingrid Salim clarified, that these concessions would not solve the problems, there would still be very difficult and painful regardless.  Nevertheless the apparent movement was a ray of hope in an otherwise very bleak forecast.

Wrote Dr. Hammond in a letter to parents at the time:

On the crux of one of the brightest days in Davis in recent memory, a day when we had a hard fought victory to open a store in West Davis, something that many people told us would never happen, I stumbled onto a rather sobering conversation about the state of the school district.

We need to lay out these numbers for people to really understand what this all means.  Right now the district is facing a $3.5 million deficit for 2010-11.  This comes on the heels of three budget cuts one in 2008 and two in 2009.

Last week, the Davis School District learned that they would need to cut an additional one million dollars from their budget as the Davis Teachers Association President Ingrid Salim announced that DTA would not be accepting one million dollars in budget concessions in order to avoid further job losses.

In a letter to parents, Superintendent James Hammond announced that this was not the end of the bad news as the Governor’s Budget proposal released on January 8 would result in additional cuts.

Back in October, the Davis School District announced that there would need to be 3.5 million dollars in additional cuts as a means of absorbing budget reductions from the state.  The idea at that time was that there would be 2.5 million dollars in budget reductions which would anticipate a reduction of 43 employees in the coming year. 

Superintendent James Hammond then hoped that employees would accept an additional million dollars in employee concessions as a means of avoiding further layoffs.

It has come to this, the Davis School District needs to cut an additional $3.5 million to fill the latest budget gap in the never ending cycle of budget cuts at the local level due to the never ending budget crisis at the state level.

Now the teachers in Davis have a choice–they have until December 15 to negotiate possible employee concessions that would include furloughs with decreases in salary.  If they do not agree to do this, they will face the loss on top of 33 teaching positions already proposed in the budget efforts that would total $2.5 million.  With concessions, they can avoid an additional million in cuts to programs.

For the third year in a row, the Davis school district is facing multimillion dollar cuts in school funding for the 2010-11 budget as discussed at last night’s school board meeting.  As Superintendent James Hammond said last night, their hope is that by addressing the cuts early, they can mitigate some of the harmful impacts on school programs by working together through a spirit of joint sacrifice.

In early 2008, the schools faced a variety of cuts in part because of the state budget, but due in large part to local issues such as declining enrollment and other structural damages.  However, the Davis Schools Foundation raised $1.7 million in emergency funds and the state’s May Revise avoided massive layoffs and possible school closing.  To close that structural deficit, the district put Measure W on the ballot in the fall of 2008.  The Measure passed by a 3 to 1 margin and enable the district to fill the $2.5 million structural deficit.

An overused phrase for the past two decades is that it takes a village to raise a child.  If California is that village, we have literally kicked our children to the curb periodically over that time period–none more than now.  With massive cuts to education but also health care and other social programs, we have taken our children, thrown them into the water, and said swim.  Those who can do, and those who can’t we end paying far more to lock away.

But within the vast wilderness of California not all villages are equal.  If you want to know why Davis still has good schools, why Davis’ children will not be thrown into the water without a life preserver, swimming lessons and at least a fighting chance, look no further than the support we have given our schools above all odds.

On Monday night, Superintendent James Hammond did two things.  First, he put to rest persistent rumors suggesting that he was planning to leave the Davis School district by taking a contract extension by two years.  This is an important event in and of itself as it shows Dr. Hammond’s continued dedication to the Davis School District in the face of tough financial times that will only get tougher as the State Legislature and Governor last night failed to reach agreement on the budget, meaning the state now faces a cashflow problem that will result in IOUs being issued as soon as tomorrow.

The second part of that commitment is that his contract which now runs through June 30 of 2012 takes a pay cut in–and not a mere superficial paycut, but a real one.

For many it was a day that they never thought would arrive.  As board President Gina Daleiden described it, she remember when she was a PTA President and the idea of a new stadium was presented as a dream.

As Ms. Daleiden put it in her prepared remarks:

The latest segment of the Toughest Ten asks DJUSD Superintendent James Hammond and Associate Superintendent Bruce Colby about the district and particularly its budget challenges.  One point of clarification is that while these are the two top staffers in the District, they are not Board Members and thus are not the ultimate decision makers on policy matters in the district.

1.     Back in March, it was suggested that if the Propositions failed and the budget picture statewide continued to deteriorate, we would face about an additional $3 million budget shortfall—what changed and could the projections presented last week still change this summer?

Associate Superintendent Bruce Colby delivered a mix of news on Thursday night, most of it bad, but there is enough good news to enable the district to avoid more cuts for 2009-10.

The bad news is that state revenues continue to fall and there is no apparent end in sight.  The state’s budget propositions failed which from the perspective of schools meant additional cuts likely immediately.  As we’ve discussed the state will have a July 1 cashflow crises.  Instead of being able to restore programs with the Federal Money, all we will be able to do is avoid further cuts.  And it will get worse.

On Thursday, the Davis School Board, the California School Employees Association (Davis Chapter 572) and the Davis Teachers Association endorsed all six ballot initiatives, propositions 1A-1F on the May 19 Special Election Ballot.

According to the districts release signed by Cathy Haskell (DTA), Jim Herrington (CSEA), Ramon Cusi (Administrative Leadership Team) and Gina Daleiden (President of the Board of Education):

If there has ever been a project fraught with more misunderstanding and misperceptions than the DHS football stadium, I am simply unaware of it.

A few weeks ago the school district approved a funding stream for the district to borrow against.  For the one billionth time, the way education funding works, this money can only be used for facilities never for the classroom.  There is no way possible for the district to do anything with this money other than what it chose to do–use it on facilities.

Earlier this week the Los Angeles Times reported that a top school district official at the state’s largest school district is meeting with teachers who have broken ranks with their union to support pay cuts as a means to avoid layoffs.

Los Angeles faces budget cuts that amount to $700 million from their $6 billion general fund budget.

The Vanguard has been saying this for at least a month, maybe longer.  Some in this community have been frankly in denial about it.  And things are not going to get better, they are going to get worse.

As Superintendent Hammond opined on Thursday, every time the district gets out of the budget hole, the hole gets deeper from the state.  The state is facing another $8 billion hole which could grow to $14 billion if the propositions fail in May, as they are going down right now in the polls.

Last night, the Davis School Board unanimously approved the Certificate of Participation (COP) to would provide the funding for the new Davis High School Stadium.  The school district will receive roughly $4.4 to $4.9 million from the COP.

The board spent considerable time clarifying a number of issues and concerns.