PUSD budget news is bad, and gets worse
By Emily Sorensen
Poway Unified school board members Monday night went through the motions of approving a 2012-13 budget that will require $35.6 million in district reserve funds to be balanced.
And that’s the good budget news.
Looking ahead toward the next couple of years, things are likely to get much worse, board members were told.
The budget for the 2012-13 school year is based on the state’s May revised budget, as no official budget has been adopted yet in Sacramento.
“We may have to adjust the budget when the state budget is adopted,” said Malliga Tholandi, associate superintendent, who presented the budget to the board.
A big question mark left hanging over Monday night’s discussions is whether California voters in November will approve one or more ballot initiatives designed to provide more tax money to public education.
Tholandi said that if either of the initiatives pass, the school district will receive flat funding, meaning while they won’t receive any more money, they also won’t have any cuts. If the initiatives do not pass, however, the state will cut $5.5 billion from statewide K-12 funding, with PUSD receiving a $14.8 million reduction in funding.
The 2012-13 budget includes a return to 100 percent salary for all employees, as well as a return to a full 180-day school year for students. School board member Marc Davis, noted that this was not a raise for employees, but a return to their full salaries of three or four years ago, which have not been adjusted for the increased cost of living. Teachers agreed to a 4 percent reduction in salary in 2011-12, as well as previously taking cuts of 2.7 percent in 2009 and 2010. The school year was reduced by 8 days this year to 172.
The district is beginning the 2012-13 school year with reserves of $48.2 million, an unusually high amount.
“This is one-time money,” warned Superintendent John Collins. “2013-14 is not going to look pretty.”
The budget will have $234.4 million in revenues and $268.5 million in expenditures, leaving the 2012-13 school year ending with a net deficit of $35.6 million, which the district will cover using reserve funds. This will leave 2013-14 to begin with only $12.6 million in reserve funds.
Tholandi’s predictions for 2013-14 and 2014-15 are grim. Required by the county to budget as if the tax initiatives had failed, the 2013-14 budget includes needed cuts of $39 million, with 2014-15 requiring a further $9.5 million in cuts. While the board didn’t know where they would cut as of yet, they predicted it could possibly include up to a 20 percent salary reduction for all employees. Tholandi noted that if the tax initiatives were to pass, the budget cuts in 2013-14 could be reduced to roughly $9 million.
“We have to adopt a budget out of compliance,” said Collins. “We feel pretty confident about the 2012-13 school year.”
The board was less pleased over the requirement of having to project their budget out to 2014-15.
“It’s a travesty and such a joke,” said Penny Ranftle, board member. “It’s all a house of cards.”
Fellow board member Todd Gutschow said, “I’d like to go on record saying this is stupid.”
In other school board news:
• The school board approved the year-round student attendance calendars for Abraxas High School and Valley Elementary School, with school beginning Thursday, July 19 and ending June 13, 2013.
• The school board reached a tentative agreement with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) bargaining group, with full agreement to be reached hopefully before October. Negotiations with bargaining groups for other unions continue this month.
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Posted by Emily Sorensen
on Jun 19 2012. Filed under Local News, Poway.
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Economic peril produces opportunity to do the inevitable — reduce the teacher as information provider — information is free on the web, and teachers can no longer be gate-keepers. There are no longer any gates to keep — its all out there. Free. Provided by better teachers at MIT, Stanford, Harvard, KHAN Academy…
Teachers must become coaches, providing leadership and guidance.
California has 330,000 teachers, the ranks of which can no longer be supported at a "top five" (state) pay position, while providing a "bottom five" (state) product.
The disconnect is too great.
The more money that government has to spend the less are the results you can expect. How many 'administrators' are there ??? And why are the custodians watching telemundo and playing solitare on the computer?
Since 1990, I have had children in the Poway Unified School District. During that time span, I have met many teachers, a couple of Speech Therapists, various office staff, principals and custodians. They are all quality individuals who have gladly put more then is required of themselves into their jobs. I may not have always agreed with them but their obvious talents to keep Poway Unified an outstanding example of of a school district have been nothing less then exemplary. Perhaps, the " administrators" are overpaid ? Honestly, I don't know but I do know the ones here have done their very best for the students. As for the custodians, I have never ever seen them watch telemundo or play solitaire on the computers. In fact, I have never seen a custodian on a computer but I have seen them doing their tasks, help students carry boxes, help injured students and find lost items.
As parents, every year we are given a list of supplies each student needs to bring. That list has increased due to the budget crisis. We are constantly urged to donate money to the schools or to our child's classroom. Some of us are able to help while others are not but each child is treated fairly, regardless. The teachers themselves often purchase items for the classrooms that benefit our students with their own money. These are teachers who have been more then very understanding throughout this budget ordeal. Perhaps, the answer for the budget crisis is to realize that the state may have to either raise taxes to benefit all the schools or Poway ( the city proud of it's wonderful school district ) needs to come up with a small local tax to benefit the schools. It wouldn't hurt if the communities of Penasquitos and Rancho Bernardo were able to pitch in too.The children in those areas are also part of the Poway Unified School District. The whole selling point for Poway and the surrounding areas has always been the school district and the city council's well thought out planning. I'm sorry that the thought of new taxes or raising existing taxes is offensive but money must come from a source one way or another. If we want to keep what little value our real estate market has in Poway and the surrounding areas and the quality of our schools then…. we must pay the piper.
All this is of course true, but taking a good "honest' look at our selves and ethics as well as morales, can tell you a LOT about our values and productivity as a district, state, and country. There is more this than PR and patriotism. The jobs went to China, why did American investors make those type of decisions? No doubt about Poway being amoung the best of the best, There were and are many big buck military govt. contractors located here.
Milton Friedman argued that government agencies resemble economic "black holes" where increased 'inputs' lead to declining 'outputs.'Economist Thomas DiLorenzo has argued that:[22]
The enormous power of government-employee unions effectively transfers the power to tax from voters to the unions. Because government-employee unions can so easily force elected officials to raise taxes to meet their "demands," it is they, not the voters, who control the rate of taxation within a political jurisdiction.
The Gallup Poll just announced that confidence in public education has fallen to the lowest point in decades — in fact it dropped five points last year, and now stands at 29%.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/poll-confi...
May I suggest that reform is overdue. Many recommendations for reform have been made nationally and locally — even on these pages — but nothing ever happens and confidence drops, year after year.
We are indeed Waiting for Superman!