Filling the sandbags
MUSD prepares for fiscal floodwaters
A budget workshop meeting of the Mammoth Unified School District Wednesday night was akin to preparations for a flood, albeit a fiscal one. Parents, School Board members and MUSD staff filled “sandbags” with ideas about how to shore up the district’s levees. The district is facing massive potential cuts caused by a river of red ink upstream in Sacramento, where state lawmakers and Governor Jerry Brown continue a standoff on how to reverse a $25 billion budget deficit.
MUSD Superintendent Rich Boccia prepped the four workshop groups with something of a pep talk. “Producing global citizens … what does that look like for us? Consider that $18 billion has been cut from Public Education in the last three years. How do we make sure they get a good, solid academic foundation with a second language?” Boccia asked rhetorically. “How do we cut about $750,000 strategically? We are where we are. What’s the next step?”
Good question, and one that’s going to be tough to answer, at least for the near future. On March 24, Gov. Brown threw up his hands, unable to get enough Republicans to support putting a handful of tax extension measures on the summer ballot. Brown is still angling on getting the measures in front of voters this November. If he fails, however, the alternative will be an “all cuts” budget, due out in early June.
Boccia indicated MUSD might have to consider a mix of budget reductions and revenue enhancement. “We don’t want to overreact and pink slip everyone, like another district recently did,” he pointed out. No layoffs are currently planned.
Part of that “revenue enhancement” involves convincing voters to renew the Parcel Tax, which is scheduled to sunset later this year. The Parcel Tax, however, may have competition in November from a new “state tax” which is being cooked up in the legislature. “[The Parcel Tax] could be our saving grace. The state is not going to come to our rescue,” Boccia wrote in a message on the MUSD’s website home page.
Meanwhile, none of the state’s recently reported $6 billion windfall in tax revenue during the most recent quarter is likely to make its way down to the district. Financial experts indicate that may only be a one-time occurrence, but in any case should not be counted on to project across the entire fiscal year.
With respect to Public Education, MUSD Finance Director Jim Maxey called the governor’s May Revise budget a “non-event.” Brown is still calling for cuts of $5 billion, some of which Maxey indicated, “will reach us at least in some fashion.” Maxey echoed Boccia’s assessment of the Parcel Tax’s value to the district. “By 2012-2103 we’ll be out the $650,000, which used to be a supplement, but now we depend on that money, and loss of it will blow a big hole in the budget,” he said.
The district is currently responsible for Special Education, which runs about $700,000 a year. Some parents suggested a Special Education analysis, including perhaps “giving it back to the Mono County Office of Education,” or at least “getting MCOE to help share expenses.”
Then there’s the $600,000 withheld by the state as a “fair share” payment leveled against Basic Aid districts.
Cuts and changes to just about every facet of the district were all put on the table by the workshop attendees. Are we overstaffed? The district has 73 teachers for about 1,000 students. Is that too many? Transportation isn’t mandated by the state? Can we get rid of some or all of that? Even Athletics, MUSD’s equivalent of the Defense Department, was a moving target, but had several parents’ sights trained on it. One group suggested it should be made more “self-sustaining,” including day football games to eliminate the need for lights.
One group advocated a half-day Kindergarten and consolidation of classes, which would eliminate two teaching positions. There was also near unanimous support for a hiring freeze and letting open positions remain unfilled.
One group pitched a “shared” position, having Boccia also serve as Middle School principal, as well as getting “sponsors” for snow removal, better utilization of resources of county and current staff, such as sharing teachers between schools, and cutting all afterschool support and Elementary School prep time.
One hands off area seemed to be AP classes, which many parents said would only have negative impacts on high-scoring students.
Other concepts discussed: Furlough days and a possible reduction in the overall school year from 182 days to 178, grant hunting, which several workshop groups thought might return some significant dollars to help support various programs, and a four-day school week and extending those days to 7 periods.
That last one, parent Kaysie Williams thinks, may get pushback from some working families who would have to make additional childcare arrangements. “In this situation, you’re not going to be able to please everybody,” she noted.
School Board Chair Jack Farrell said that, as with as similar workshop two years ago, the best case scenario is that the district will be ready, but not have to use any of the drastic measures. The School Board plans to discuss budget reduction priorities during its May 26 meeting at 6 p.m. in the MHS Library.
