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Following the recent resignation of Eastern Sierra Unified School District Board member Matthew Baumann, the remaining Board members appointed Melinda Melendrez to fill the vacant seat, which represents the Tri-Valley area, this past Wednesday night. Baumann’s term did not expire until 2014, but according to ESUSD Executive Secretary Ashley Custer, a formal vote on the seat will be part of this November’s school board elections, which will also include the Bridgeport and Lee Vining seats. The terms of the Board members currently filling these two seats are actually set to expire this year.

The Eastern Sierra Unified School District is used to talking about pink slips this time of year, and at Wednesday’s Special Board meeting, discussions veered back to the inevitable.

ESUSD staff presented the District’s Second Interim Budget Report, which projects the District’s finances over the next few years. While the 2011/12 school year will enjoy a small surplus of $140,000 due to transportation money returned by the state as well as $118,000 from the final outcome of the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area tax assessment, the 2012-13 school year doesn’t look as bright.

“We are looking at a $74,000 deficit next year,” explained ESUSD Superintendent Don Clark. “Without the layoffs approved [on Wednesday], we would have had an additional $280,000 deficit.”

Board members approved the pink slipping of 4.5 positions. Two of these positions were teachers at High Desert Academy, the high school in Benton.

“The elimination of these two positions will effectively close the High Desert Academy,” Clark said. A plan is currently being developed to bus High Desert Academy students to Bishop High School next year.

“We [ESUSD] would drive a bus from Benton to Chalfant,” Clark said. “Bishop would then pick the students up there and drive them to Bishop High School.”

Currently High Desert Academy has 11 students, six of whom are seniors. According to Clark, there is only one potential freshmen thinking about attending High Desert next year, which means ESUSD will have six students who will require busing.

The third pink-slipped position is an elementary teacher at Edna Beaman, also in Benton.

“This means that there will be triple-graded classrooms at Edna Beaman,” Clark said. Grades K, 1 and 2 will also be placed under the care of one teacher. However, with only 38 students in the entire school, there will still only be 15 students in the triple-graded room, according to Clark.

Similarly, the fourth pink-slipped position was one teacher at Bridgeport Elementary. Grades 4, 5 and 6 will be put into a triple-graded classroom for a group of 16 students.

The .5 position that was also pink-slipped Wednesday night was the Antelope Elementary School PE teacher in Coleville.

Clark confirmed that this was just the first warning to these teachers of a potential layoff. Final decisions are not made until May but the District is required to give the teachers notice in March.

“All of the news that we are hearing [regarding future financing], however, is that things are going to get worse, not better,” Clark said. “We are pretty confident that the layoffs will go through.”

Map A

Last week, the Eastern Sierra Unified School District’s Board of Education voted on a map that will rebalance trustee, or board member, residence areas. Similar in concept to redistricting that Mono County recently went through, the need to rebalance came on the heels of the 2010 consensus. For ESUSD, however, it was also a matter of compliance.

“We haven’t gone through this process for 30 years,” explained ESUSD Superintendent Don Clark.

In fact, it’s been so long that the District was unable to find an original map of the trustee areas.

“There are no current, approved maps,” Clark said. “The current areas seem to have been grandfathered in, which isn’t legal, so we are coming into compliance.”

The most glaring discrepancy with the current trustee boundaries is that they include Mammoth Lakes even though Mammoth Unified School District was created in 1974-75.

“The main difference that was pointed out was that because Mammoth has their own school district, the ESUSD re-districting was even harder than Mono County’s, as Mono County had the town of Mammoth in the mix,” said Mono County Supervisor Vikki Bauer in an email. She attended the meeting on behalf of a friend who has children in the school district.

Bauer explained to the Board that the County had used a citizens advisory committee to help with its redistricting process, and that all legal challenges that are making it through the California courts now are siding with a citizens committee.

“Also that if they did not feel ready to make a decision that they shouldn’t feel pressured,” Bauer said.

But, as Clark pointed out, the Board had been looking at the reconfiguration for more than a year.

“Ultimately they did decide to proceed and their position was well thought out,” Bauer added.

While the new map is a “pretty radical change” to the way the trustee areas are laid out now, according to Clark, the change is buffered by the fact that the Board chose to stay with an at-large election system rather than change to a by-trustee system. This means that the

In light of the 2010 Census, the Eastern Sierra Unified School District’s Board will review and hold a public hearing on several sets of maps that redraw the trustee (Board member) area maps that determine who runs against whom based on geography. It is a similar exercise to what the Mono County Board of Supervisors went through last year with redistricting.

The Feb. 23 meeting is being held at 6 p.m. at the District Office in Bridgeport.

View the maps here: http://easternsierra.ca.schoolwebpages.com/education/components/docmgr/default.php?sectiondetailid=3526&

The Board is required to re-balance its trustee area plans in light of population changes reflected in the 2010 Census and will solicit public testimony regarding one or more proposed re-balanced trustee residence area plans. Any plan adopted will then be submitted to the Mono County Committee on School District Organization.

Board slaps idea down

Mono County community members voiced concerned over an Eastern Sierra Unified School District Board of Education agenda item at the Board’s regular meeting on Wendesday night. If approved, the item would have reallocated $4 million in bond funds to other capital projects. Citizens complained that using the money this way was not the intent of the original measure. Originally it was a Prop 39 general obligation bond passed by state voters in 2000 for school infrastructure. The money was earmarked for building a school gym in Benton.

According to wording in the agenda item, “The citizens’ bond oversight committee recently recommended that the board consider reallocating bond funds currently reserved for building a gymnasium at the Benton campus and using those funds for other eligible capital projects in the district. Management agrees that this course of action should be considered, and recommends opening a one month public comment period to receive input on this proposal.”

A list of capital projects, amounting to just under $4 million, was attached.

“It would be morally and ethically wrong to take the Tri-Valley citizens’ money just because you could,” Mono County Supervisor Hap Hazard said to the Board. The Board’s proposal, he opined, involved not just 30-40 kids and their family but also about a 1,000 taxpayers.

During his comments, Hazard pressed the Board on the commitment they had made, and pointed out “the need to have community support in the future” and described a “trust” that could potentially be broken.

According to Hazard, the BOE voted to end the discussion of redirecting the money, and in fact recommitted to the gym. The Board will, however, seek a redesign of the gym in hopes to lower the construction cost.

Up next for the Board will be dealing with potential deep financial cuts to the District next year. -Geisel

Tems-peratures run hot within ESUSD

There’s even more behind election system discussions that have been going on in the Eastern Sierra Unified School District (ESUSD) for about a year. Bigger than the concern of minority representation and the California Voting Rights Act is simply concern regarding proper representation on the school board for the town of Coleville. At a special Board meeting on Dec. 12, several members of the public expressed dissatisfaction with board member, Bob Tems who represents Antelope Valley.

“We are not seeing representation at a local level,” said Antelope Valley resident John Peters, who ran against Tems in the 2010 school board election and lost.

“The allocation of resources is what people are concerned about, not minorities,” said Jimmy Little, a Bridgeport resident.

Since the end of 2010, ESUSD has been discussing changing from an “at large” election system to a “by trustee” system. The difference would mean that instead of the entire district being allowed to vote for any one of the school board members, the community would only be allowed to vote for the school board member who would represent their area. For example, residents in the Antelope Valley would only be allowed to vote for a school board member who lives within the Antelope Valley boundaries. They would not be allowed to vote for the Board member that would represent June Lake, Benton, or any other areas of the district.

The district is divided on the issue with the strongest pull for a change coming from Coleville. In the 2010 election, Tems, who lives in Walker, won the Antelope Valley seat, however. he received the majority of his votes from outside the Antelope Valley area. According to Mono County’s election results, Tems received only 25.36 percent of the vote in Antelope Valley, but 40.92 percent of the overall vote in the district. Peters received 40.67 percent of the vote in Antelope Valley but only 30.17 percent of the overall vote.

If Antelope Valley had been the sole community to vote for that seat on the Board, Tems would not have walked away with a victory.

“Communities can be overridden by the rest of the district,” Little said. “That is a valid concern.”

Board President Doug Northington, however, felt it didn’t matter how any one board member is elected. “You need a board majority to pass anything,” he said. “Regardless of what each site wants, you’re still only one vote. By trustee could create even more division on the Board.”

“But the issue is that the particular group [Coleville] does not have a voice at the table, regardless of how a vote goes,” Little explained.

“Coleville parents don’t have a Board member coming to events and activities,” added Brianna Brown, another Bridgeport resident. “Coleville got pushed into a situation and didn’t get the representative it wanted. They don’t have anyone on the Board saying, ‘I’m here for Coleville.’”

Interestingly enough, Brown added, if Coleville wanted to it has the numbers to steamroll elections in other areas. If Coleville residents banded together they could end up choosing who was elected in Benton or other areas of the district.

Board member Matthew Baumann, while willing to give in and allow the change to “by trustee” feared that it would cause Coleville to take on an even bigger “us against them” attitude.

“[Coleville] has no problem steamrolling other sites and the kids are negatively affected by it,” Baumann commented.

“I don’t think it is so much ‘down with other sites’ as it is feeling a need to protect ourselves,” Brown said. “No one’s fighting for them [Coleville].”

Tems readily admitted to The Sheet after the meeting that he takes a district-wide approach rather than an Antelope Valley approach while sitting at the table as a Board member. He also did not argue his lack of attendance at Antelope Valley school functions.

“A ‘by trustee’ election system would harm, not help,” Tems opined. “It could be argued that it would segregate minorities.” Which would bring the Board back to a California Voting Rights Act issue. The CVRA says that minorities must be equally represented, but in Tems’ opinion, changing to by trustee would break up the Hispanic populations in the district and they may not be equally represented in each community.

The Board will vote on a resolution regarding the election system at its regular meeting on Dec. 19 at 6 p.m. at the District Office in Bridgeport. The resolution (a non-binding Board recommendation), if approved, would keep the at large system in place. The issue would then go to the Mono County Committee (the governing body allowed to make a change to a governing board’s election system) for a final decision.

“If people want to change to by trustee we should go with it,” Baumann said. “With the budget issues looming before us we are wasting time and beating a dead horse with this.”

Some parents outside of Coleville, however, do not want to make the change. Joe Blommer of June Lake supported keeping the at large system.

“Changing to by trustee would limit parents’ control over their kid’s education,” Blommer said. “Some parents wouldn’t be able to elect the Board members that most affect the school their child attends.”

With a district the size of Eastern Sierra Unified, often children living in one community attend a school in another because there is no school in their immediate community.

“Anyone running for a Board position already has to live in the area they would represent, so they already understand their community,” he concluded.

Could CVRA create further money woes for school districts?

California school districts that think budget cuts are their biggest issue could be in for a rude awakening as more about the California Voting Rights Act becomes clear. Currently, there is only one sure way to safeguard a district from lawsuits stemming from supposed CVRA violations. The Eastern Sierra Unified School District has been examining this safe harbor for the past few months.

Presently, ESUSD elects its Board members via “at-large” elections (as does Mammoth Unified School District, which also discussed CVRA in September, according to the minutes). This means that any community member in the Eastern Sierra Unified School District is allowed to vote for any and all seats on the Board.

In May, Mono County Superintendent of Schools, Stacey Adler made a presentation to the Board regarding the California Voting Rights Act, which was enacted in 2002. The law purports to make it easier for racial and ethnic groups to challenge at-large elections than under the Federal Voting Rights Act. According to Adler’s PowerPoint in May, “moving from the current ‘at-large’ election system to a ‘by-trustee’ system is the ONLY sure protection from a CVRA suit.” Other publications such as California Schools Magazine report the same.

Several CVRA suits have been filed against elected bodies in the past few years, including suits against Madera Unified School District and Hanford Joint Union School District. According to the Santa Clara Weekly, in the case of Madera, the District lost and had to pay $1.2 million in the plaintiff’s lawyer fees. While Hanford chose to settle, it was required to pay the plaintiff’s lawyer fees as well to the tune of $110,000.

In a “by-trustee” system, the voters residing in the area that the candidate will represent conduct elections. For example, residents of June Lake would only be allowed to vote for the school board member that represents June Lake. This would mean voters would only get to vote on school board members every four years rather than every two.

Since 2003, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights (LCCR), whose members were drafters of the CVRA according to the Santa Clara Weekly, started bringing lawsuits against all kinds of elected bodies. The main goal, it seems, is to put Latinos in office, the article stated.

“Despite California’s diversity and status as a minority-majority state, the LCCR’s lawsuits and threats appear to focus almost exclusively on electing Latinos to public office,” it continued.

ESUSD Superintendent Don Clark, however, explained that there was an additional catalyst for looking at this potential change. “Every 10 years when the census is done we reevaluate our district numbers and board election system,” he explained. “Our legal counsel has reviewed our minority numbers and determined that we are not underrepresenting the Hispanic population [with the way the District currently holds elections].” Currently four out of five Board members are Caucasian.

Emails between community members have circulated throughout the district regarding the topic, and it seems that the public is split on the idea of the change. Some argue that the by-trustee approach would allow the elected board member to have a better understanding of his or her area’s needs and concerns, and therefore he or she would better represent the students in his or her area. Others argue that because anyone running for a Board position must live in their portion of the school district in order to run, the representation and understanding of their specific area is already present.

At last month’s ESUSD Board meeting held in Coleville, the topic drew in a large crowd.

“We probably had about 150 people there,” Clark said. The majority of the group requested that the Board change to a “by-trustee” election system. The Board, however, was not in favor of this change, according to Clark.

The confirmation from legal counsel that no population in the District was being underrepresented, plus the feeling of the Board that each member should represent the entire district, not just one portion, were some of the reasons the Board did not feel it was necessary to make a change, according to Clark.

There could, however, be one more reason that the Board may not want to shake up the electoral procedure: fiscal constraints. According to a 2009 article in California Schools Magazine, “School districts and county offices with budgets strained by tough fiscal times are understandably reluctant to devout resources to changing districts’ electoral systems.”

If the Board did decide to change the electoral system, the change would then have to go before the voters.

According to Lynda Roberts, County Clerk/Recorder, if the item were put on the ballot the cost would be pro-rated with how many other items were on that same ballot.

“If it were on a June ballot where there are more items, they would only pay a portion of the cost,” Roberts said. If, however, it were the only thing on the ballot (such as MUSD’s Measure S in November), the District would pay the entire cost.

ESUSD is still reeling from its budget issues in the 2009/10 fiscal year when it met with a more than $2 million shortfall. Like many other California school districts, today ESUSD is facing even more cuts from the state in the upcoming months. The Board is expected to discuss a potential $350,000 loss from the state at its Dec. 19 regular meeting.

A special board meeting is being held on Monday, Dec. 12 at 6 p.m. at the District Office in Bridgeport. According to Clark, the Board will again receive public testimony on the subject of changing the electoral system at this meeting.

Regardless of whether or not the Board is swayed to change the electoral system, the district lines for ESUSD will have to be redrawn because currently, the numbers represented in each segment of the district are out of whack.

For example, Lee Vining has about 250 constituents while the Walker/Coleville area has more than 1,000. The new configuration of the lines is presently undecided.

“We need more equal representation and will be working with a consultant in the coming months to accomplish this,” Clark said. He estimated that each segment of the district should represent approximately 800 people.

The Eastern Sierra Unified School District is in a budget pinch again this year, but this time it hasn’t taken the community by surprise, and it’s due to state funding news, not District overspending. With Governor Jerry Brown’s unsuccessful attempt at a special election that would have allowed voters to decide whether or not to extend taxes and therefore allow fewer cuts in California, school districts must now prepare for the worst. For ESUSD this means finding ways to trim at least $500,000 from its budget.

In February, the ESUSD Board made the controversial decision to pink slip every certificated position in the District to make sure it was prepared for anything the state might do down the road. In past weeks, pink slips for all but 8.5 of these teaching positions have been rescinded. The Board has been holding workshops in the last month to hear the community’s cost-cutting scenarios, and to vet the ideas proposed by ESUSD Superintendent Don Clark and Mono County Office of Education, which include the layoffs and closing of High Desert Academy.

“Strong communication is important, we don’t want to repeat last year,” said Board member Margie Beaver.

At the April 21 workshop, Board members pledged to try and keep cuts as far from the classroom as they could. Beaver even suggested the Board look at cutting or reducing the health benefits and mileage reimbursements that members receive.

“We’re going to cut teachers last here,” said Board member Matt Baumann. With the May 15 state mandated decision date approaching, Board members will have to find other avenues, fast.

“This is a tough conversation and it will be hard work to successfully keep cuts out of the classroom,” said member Gabe Segura.

A final workshop is scheduled for May 5 at 6 p.m. at the District office in Bridgeport. The Board will vote on teacher layoffs at a special meeting, tentatively scheduled for May 9.

-LK

ESUSD approves district-wide notices, sweats state’s next budget moves

Much like Picasso, the Eastern Sierra Unified School District Board is going through a “pink period.” However, unlike the great artist, ESUSD’s phase signifies the beginning of uncertainty and torment, rather than the end.

At its regular meeting on Feb. 15, much to the chagrin of the public in attendance and the teachers on the receiving end, the ESUSD Board unanimously approved a resolution to send pink slips to every certificated employee in the District. According to the Board, this was simply the first step of many to come in the next few months as the State’s fiscal woes again leave schools in limbo.

The point that the Board tried to make to those in the audience was that these pink slips do not necessarily mean that any of the certificated staff will actually be laid off. According to Board President Doug Northington, it is just a necessary step to give the Board the flexibility to use layoffs as a last resort to make up for budget deficits that may be coming down the pipe.

“Everything, however, is up for negotiation,” he added. “As one Board member, I promise to do my utmost to make sure teachers aren’t laid off and that the cuts come from elsewhere.”

According to California law, if a teacher is not given notice that they could potentially be laid off by March 15, they cannot actually be laid off in that year, even though actual layoffs do not occur until May 15.

“School budgeting is a cart-before-the-horse scenario because of the state,” explained Northington. Schools are asked to figure out their budgets before they even know how much will be in them.

Schools in the Eastern Sierra receive their first budget apportionments in January.

This year ESUSD’s came in at $3.8 million, which is what the District had planned for, according to ESUSD Superintendent Don Clark. The second apportionment does not come in until April, a month after the deadline for sending out notices to teachers. ESUSD has $2.5 million budgeted for its second apportionment.

Even if the second apportionment is in on target, the state can still take back some of the money. This cash grab is relatively new for basic aid schools, Clark said.

Basic aid schools are primarily funded by property taxes. Until recently, they flew under the radar when it came to being part of balancing the state’s budget because the property taxes make them mostly self-sufficient. In the last few years, “Fair Share” fees have been imposed upon basic aid schools. This was part of the problem last year when ESUSD’s budget came up extremely short.

“The state took back $250,000 of our apportionments,” Clark explained. Of course, ESUSD’s deficit, which last year ballooned to more than $2 million, included many other factors as well.

“Much of the fault was on us last year, but none of it is on us this year,” Northington explained when discussing this year’s pink slips. “We are doing something totally different so that we aren’t coming up with a plan in two hours,” he added, referring to the late notice of the deficit last year and the Board’s scramble to come up with some type of solution at the eleventh hour.

But the public was not satisfied and thought that the blanket pink slipping was poor planning on the Board’s behalf. Those who spoke suggested that the Board had at least enough information for a more targeted, specific approach to the pink slip distribution.

“You need to treat staff with respect, but you’re saying you don’t have a plan,” said North County resident Ran Berlin. “You are taking the easy way out. You need to have a plan to back up the pink slips.”

Eastern Sierra Teacher’s Association Union President Darcey Lent agreed and pointed out that “the teachers do not feel the support of the Board” with this action.

In contrast the Mammoth Unified School District is only sending out a handful of pink slips because of personnel issues, not because of a need for a “reduction in force” as MUSD Superintendent Rich Boccia described it.

“We are confident that our reserve is healthy enough not to have to pink slip for a reduction in force,” Boccia explained further, even though MUSD could see cuts of up to $900,000 in a worst case scenario.

“Sending out pink slips is a normal procedure because we have to base our budgets on the State’s budget that is coming six months later,” explained MUSD Board member Greg Newbry, but sending pink slips to the entire certificated staff is abnormal, he added.

The Board, however, argued that they did not have enough information for a more targeted plan at this time.

“We are talking about a $200,000 deficit if we are lucky,” said Board member Matt Baumann, whose own wife will be receiving one of the pink slips. “Property tax apportionments are not going to come in on target. We have to be realistic. The way schools budget and are funded is a broken system. We know what we have and we’re fearing for the worst.”

“Last year we were told in January that the deficit would be $250,000 and it ended up at $2.2 million,” added Northington. “We can’t guarantee what it may be this year. The pink slips are just to help everyone understand the gravity of the state’s situation and how much is out of our control. We have to be on the safe side.”

Whether or not Governor Jerry Brown’s request for a Special Election in June is granted will play a huge role in school’s budgets for the next few years. Brown’s hope is to bring a ballot measure to the voters asking them to extend temporary increases in the state’s sales, income and vehicle taxes for five years. If the measure were approved it would alleviate the state’s need to take back apportionments.

“The governor wants to hold school’s harmless this year,” Clark explained. If the Special Election is granted, the state may move the May 15 layoff date back to June 15 this year in order to give schools a chance to see the outcome of the election before letting teachers go. The Board also approved a resolution on Tuesday that supports placing the revenue-extension measure on the June ballot if it moves forward. The Legislature has until March to decide whether or not to hold the Special Election.

“You asked for a change,” concluded Board member Bob Tems, referring to the election of three new Board members last fall. “Give us a chance. We don’t want to layoff anyone, but you have to let us see what the budgets are like. That’s what you put us here for.”

Is the Board pitching in?

The Sheet received a copy of an anonymous complaint form to the Mono County Grand Jury against the ESUSD Board this week. The unknown complaintant states that while the Board cuts in areas such as certificated staff, they continue to receive stipends and healthcare benefits.

According to Grant Herndon of Schools Legal Services, ESUSD legal representation that had yet to see the complaint, healthcare benefits outside of the approved monthly stipend allowed for school boards is not illegal as is suggested in the complaint.

Northington clarified further that ESUSD board members are not receiving monthly stipends and not all of them are receiving health benefits, either.

“We only receive health benefits if we elect to have them,” Northington said. “Some of us do not receive health benefits.”

In response to whether or not Board benefits of any shape or form were also on the chopping block to keep budget cuts away from the classroom, Northington simply said, “Everything is up for negotiation.”

In an attempt to prepare for the worst, the Eastern Sierra Unified School District Board approved a resolution to send pink slips to every certificated employee in the District at its Feb. 15 meeting. The drastic move had never been tried before, according to Board President Doug Northington, but was something that the Board felt was necessary to avoid the utter chaos that occurred last year when the Board, expecting a $250,000 shortfall in its budget, ended up with a more than $2 million deficit instead.

“We are doing something totally different this year so that we aren’t coming up with a plan in two hours,” Northington explained to the public, referring to last year’s fiasco.

With the State’s budget just as unstable as it was last year, there are no guarantees about what schools will or will not receive in terms of funding. Governor Jerry Brown has proposed a June Special Election where he would hope to bring a ballot measure to the voters asking them to extend temporary increases in the state’s sales, income and vehicle taxes for five years. If the Special Election is allowed to go through (so far Republicans are not buying into it, but the Legislator has until March to make a final decision), and if voters approve the measure, schools are expected to be saved from further cuts this year. However, with so much still undetermined, ESUSD is looking at all options for how they may have to proceed.

Pink slipping all the certificated staff does not mean all or any of the positions would end up actually being laid off, it just gives the Board the flexibility to use layoffs as an option to make up budget deficits if they should arise.

“As one Board member, I promise to do my utmost to make sure teachers aren’t laid off and that the cuts come from elsewhere,” Northington told the disappointed public after the Board’s unanimous vote to approve the resolution.

For more on this story see this week’s print version of The Sheet, or check back here, www.thesheetnews.com.