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(Photo: Susan Morning)

In California, we hear too much bad news about the state of public education; our schools face unprecedented budget cuts, growing class sizes and other challenges.

Thanks to the fundraising efforts of two local nonprofits, Mammoth Unified School District students have a brighter outlook and enhanced learning opportunities.

Since 2010, Mammoth Schools NOW Education Foundation (NOW) and Mammoth Mountain Community Foundation (MMCF) have worked together to fund programs, positions and technology that improve education in Mammoth’s schools. For the 2012-13 school year, NOW and MMCF are contributing some $300,000 to Mammoth Unified.

“ This ongoing fiscal crisis challenges us all to think creatively. The partnership between MUSD, the NOW Foundation and the MMCF has provided us with leadership opportunities that will allow us to continue to build programs that will meet the needs of our students,” said MUSD Superintendent Rich Boccia.

What is funded

NOW’s volunteer board members (representing the three Mammoth Unified School District sites) have worked with Superintendent Rich Boccia to identify four funding priorities for 2012-13: Increased class offerings/academic flexibility, technology, language pathways and visual/performing arts.

Over the summer, Boccia and his staff finalized a funding proposal that matches up with NOW’s priorities. It adds up to great programs at every grade level. At Mammoth High School, the NOW/MMCF partnership funds two full-time teachers and online courses for the Independent Learning Center; at Mammoth Middle School, a full-time Spanish teacher; at Mammoth Elementary, a part-time music teacher. District-wide, funding supports an information technology specialist and K-8 software for multiple subjects that enables students to utilize computers in the classroom and at home.

Mammoth Elementary School Principal Rosanne Lampariello praised the opportunities created at her school: “A love and appreciation of music is being cultivated at our school, starting with our youngest and carrying through to our oldest students—made possible by the generosity of the NOW/MMCF Partnership.”

How funding works

Both NOW and MMCF rely on private donations and operate with very low overhead so that more money goes into the schools. Through an annual fund drive and participation in the Mammoth Food and Wine Experience, NOW has raised $50,000.

Education is a cornerstone program for Mammoth Mountain Community Foundation, and for the last two years, the organization has committed to a $250,000 donation to Mammoth’s schools through the NOW Foundation. Much of that donation comes to MMCF from Mammoth Mountain’s guests: when skiers and guests stay at Mammoth Mountain lodging or buy a season pass, they have the option to donate a dollar or more to MMCF’s education program. An important part of that donation is funding the Independent Learning Center at Mammoth High School, which provides flexible programming (through a combination of online and in-class learning) to district students.

“It’s a win-win, allowing MMCF to bring additional resources to Mammoth’s schools while also creating a program that supports student athletes on Mammoth Mountain teams,” said MMCF executive director Stacy Corless.

How to help

Look for the NOW Education Foundation’s annual fund drive in early 2013. If you are interested in participating on the NOW Board or assisting in fundraising efforts, please visit www.MammothSchoolsNOW.org or call 760.453.0444.

MMCF and NOW are also collaborating on other fundraising efforts, working with the business community to develop ways for their customers to support local education. For more information, email Stacy Corless, MMCF executive director, at stacy@mammothfoundation.org and visit www.mammothfoundation.org.

-Press Release

We’ve all heard or been part of debates about public education. While it’s been great water cooler conversation, real-world reality comes down to what the states do, and few state legislatures are as bad at managing education concerns as California’s.

It’s been a great proving ground for the local districts, which have been forced to do more with less, in light of more than $18 billion in state cuts over the past few years, and more on the way. As 2011 came to a close, California Governor Jerry Brown pulled triggers that called for cuts to several state budget items, the largest cut of which was aimed at education. While the cuts to Mammoth Unified and Eastern Sierra Unified school districts could have been worse, it’s bothersome that the automatic cuts were programmed to pull money from schools first and foremost.

Mammoth residents recently opted to renew the $59 parcel tax to bolster public school budgets, and are probably scratching their heads at why county schools are tightening their belts further and debating whether to mothball buses.

If he’s successful in placing them on the November ballot, Brown will ask voters to approve a package of tax hikes to stave off any future education cuts, a reaction to how badly both sides of the aisle have handled budget crafting before and since he took office.

Indeed, it seems that our dysfunctional lawmakers in Sacramento seem to think that it’s okay to balance a budget on revenue that isn’t really there and at the same time do nothing to rein in out-of-control spending. Then, when the going inevitably gets tough, pay for it on the backs of an already underfunded, overburdened education system.

To illustrate just how overburdened schools are now, during December’s MUSD Board of Education meeting, former Chair Jack Farrell related parts of a treatise on public education by Jamie Vollmer, a champion of public education, and noted author of the book, “Schools Cannot Do It Alone.” Vollmer’s point is that since it was instituted, increases in public education’s tasks have far outpaced additional money and time to accomplish them.

America’s public schools, championed under President Thomas Jefferson’s administration, were established to teach basic reading, writing and arithmetic, and some history and civics. Until around 1900, the only real additions to the curriculum were science and geography.

At the beginning of the 20th century, however, curriculums were expanded and assigned additional duties, a trend that’s continued ever since, with new responsibilities either created or shifted to public schools.

From 1900 to 1910: Nutrition, Immunization and Health activities.

In the 1950s, expanded science, math, music and art requirements, safety and driver’s education were introduced, foreign language requirements, and thanks to the Kinsey Report, sex education!

In the 1980s, the floodgates really opened, adding: Computer education, Multicultural/Ethnic education, English-as-a-second-language, Teen Pregnancy awareness, and more.

And from 2000-present: No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, Bullying prevention, Anti-harassment policies, Body Mass Index evaluation, Organ donor education and awareness, Personal Finance, Entrepreneurial innovation, Media literacy and Wellness.

This list is but a partial one. As Farrell and Vollmer both noted, virtually none of these things have since been taken off Public Education’s plate, and school years and school days are in fact getting shorter, not longer.

Meanwhile, Brown’s tax plan frankly puts voters in a no-win situation. Neither higher taxes nor more cuts to schools are desirable. But as Farrell’s fellow BOE member Greg Newbry pointed out, any future negotiations have to be “all about the kids, not the teachers.” And he’s right. In the short term, failing a major “come to Jesus” moment in Sacramento, approving new tax hikes could be the only recourse we the people have left to us. Until we can radically retool the priorities and processes at the state level, after all we’ve asked education to do, we might have to do this. Just remember this list when you go to the ballot box.

It’s no secret that these are tough times for California public education. As an Aug. 28 Los Angeles Times article noted, although the state budget adopted in June gave schools the same funding this year as last year, revenues for the state are still down 10% below projections, which could mean mid-year December cuts in public education funding of up to $1.5 billion, or $260 per student.

To combat this fiscal crisis, Inyo and Mono counties Offices of Education are getting creative and looking to a new funding opportunity: charter schools. Inyo has taken advantage of California Education Code 47605.1 (3G), which allows for statewide rather than county or contiguous-county charters for federal programs. This means Inyo can partner with federal programs to open charter schools in major cities, such as Los Angeles.

“This is now our fourth year in operation,” said Inyo County Office of Education and Superintendent of Schools Terry McAteer. “We have 12 sites in LA and about 1,200 kids.” Sites include East LA, Pasadena, Palmdale, San Bernardino and Watts, among others. The students range from 18-24, and between 60-100 students attend school at each site. All sites are partnerships between Inyo County and Youth Build, a youth and community development program that provides job training and education opportunities for high school dropouts.

While these schools are physically located in LA, technically they belong to Inyo County. “These students are all considered Inyo County students because the funds from Sacramento flow through my office and we distribute them,” said McAteer. The charter school program receives an overall $8 million in funds, including about $1 million “unencumbered” dollars that the Inyo Office of Education is free to use as it chooses. “We do all the business services for the employees down in LA,” McAteer explained. “We cut all payroll, do all the paperwork associated with accounts payable/receivable, and provide special education for those kids. Because we do this efficiently, we’re able to put back into Inyo that $1 million a year.”

This extra money has spared the Office of Education any cuts this year. In fact, unlike any other Inyo district, the Office of Education gave its employees a 3% raise. “Four years ago the Office of Education budget was $12 million,” said McAteer. “This year it’s around $20 million, including the $8 million from the charter.” So, while state funding continues to drop, the charter continues to bring in more money.

The charter program has been so successful that Inyo is looking to pursue sites in the Bay Area, which could add another 200-300 students to the 1,200 currently counted toward Inyo. Putting these numbers in context, there are currently 2,800 children in Inyo’s public education system; about 1,000 of them in high school. Already charter school students in LA exceed high school students in Inyo. With the addition of new sites, charter students may eventually exceed the total number students physically located in Inyo.

But the benefit of the charter school program isn’t just monetary, said McAteer. “It’s phenomenal: 550 kids graduated last year. Kids who wouldn’t normally have a diploma or a job skill have one today.”

Mono County is following in Inyo’s footsteps, partnering with state-funded Urban Core of San Diego to found a charter this year. “So far we’re having an average daily attendance of 174 students,” reported Mono County Office of Education Superintendent Stacey Adler. Mono County’s numbers are generally smaller than Inyo’s, with 174 charter students to 474 Mono high school students, and a total of about 1,800 students in the Mono public school system. The Urban Core student body is “pretty unique,” said Adler; “half the students got involved with gangs, or came from a really bad home situation, and the other half are here on political asylum from countries like Africa and Iraq.”

The Mono Office of Education has filed its first attendance record, which is necessary to receive state funding for the charter school, and anticipates approximately $155,000 in restricted revenue for the charter and other special education programs, and $80,000 in unrestricted revenue to be spent in Mono County.

Unlike Inyo, Mono isn’t looking to expand its charter sites next year. “Right now we have one school and we’re good,” Adler said. “At this stage of the game it’s definitely win-win.” She added, “It is more work for the officer who has to oversee one more district, because our fiscal oversight responsibilities extend to this school as well.” But overall Adler felt “honored to be involved with a school like this, which gives kids who wouldn’t otherwise have a chance for an education.”

It seems that at least for the foreseeable future non-contiguous charter schools are here to stay. As McAteer put it, “In order to make it these days in public education, you have to be entrepreneurial. You have to do things outside of the box, not just rely on Sacramento. That’s what we’re doing.”

Former Mammoth High School Principal Mike Agnitch (left) and current Principal Gabe Solorio congratulate each other on a job well done. Mammoth High School was awarded California Distinguished School status earlier this week. (Photo: Geisel)

Budget balanced, buses will roll

Mammoth Unified School District Superintendent Frank Romero reviewed solutions to the District’s budget crunch during a special School Board meeting on Tuesday evening, presenting a balanced budget he and Finance Director Jim Maxey worked out with a mix of creative money moving and input from the community.
In February, the District had to come up with $350,000 in cuts, which it achieved via one retirement, some spending reductions and elimination of 1 Full Time Employment Equivalency (FTEE). In May, however, the state’s budget grip tightened significantly more, forcing Romero to look for $600,000 more in cuts. He held a meeting to gather community input, and assembled a list of 28 community input ideas. A feasibility study was performed on each idea; some (elimination of School Board stipends, suspending field trips and miscellaneous classroom supplies) ranked high on the list. Others (going to a 4-day school week, a sales tax hike and charging a fee for instructional supplies) came in somewhat lower.
(School districts can’t actually initiate such tax increases, and by law must provide textbooks and instructional materials to all students.)
When all was said and done, four main actions solved the majority of the problem: 1.) reducing administration by 1 position (Elementary School Principal); 2.) reducing the Elementary School staff by 1, due to a last minute resignation; 3.) elimination of 1 contract employee; and 4.) elimination of 1 bus driver.
These moves brought the savings to $290,000, short of the goal. The rest was achieved by taking the remaining balances in Categorical funding, transferring those into the General Fund, and making up the difference with a drawdown from the Reserve Fund.
Using the Categorical money helped avoid taking the Reserve fund below the state mandated 3%, which would have drawn a Negative Certification for the District’s budget. (Think of it as the District being given a “junk” bond rating … not good.)
Romero said that Basic Aid districts, such as ours, should ideally have 10-20% in reserves. The numbers for the coming year aren’t yet final, however, he and Maxey estimate they will come in somewhere between 6 and 10%. Romero said the emphasis as he sees it will be getting plans in place to address more hard times potentially on the horizon. “The 2012-2013 budget could be problematic,” he said, saying that the state looks at not only whether a district will make budget in a current year, but also its projections 2 years into the future.

The wheels on the bus …

… Will continue to go round and round, but not without a few modifications, particularly to the routes. Romero pointed out that busing isn’t required, but the District does its best to keep it in service to help the community. He did, however, qualify that by saying that with the budget situation, the District will be looking to scale down routes. “No matter what you do, it won’t be perceived as equitable,” Romero said. “If you cut Crowley, you’ll hear that the rural areas are being penalized. If you cut Mammoth, you’ll hear, ‘Well, it was their choice to move down there.’”
Romero indicated the approach they’re considering will be “centralized,” essentially consolidating the number of stops in the various communities. What stops and where are still yet to be determined, and Romero added that keeping bus service (and other District programs) in the budget could prove difficult in the not-too-distant future, unless some supplemental funding options are developed.