Assistant Superintendent Mike Matthews’ plan to cut next year’s budget for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District’s budget by nearly $2.5 million is not receiving any kudos from the teachers union. Matthews’ plan calls for the elimination of more than $2 million worth of teaching positions and about $400,000 in school and district administrators. Santa Monica-Malibu Classroom Teachers Association President Harry Keiley said the amounts should be reversed.
“During the last four years we have seen a decrease in the number of students in the district and the number of teachers,” Keiley said. “It’s long overdue that we cut the number of district administrators based upon the belief that cuts should be made the furthest away from classroom.”
When asked about Keiley’s comments, Matthews said in an interview this week, “[The cuts were proposed] on what we believe is best for the district.”
The district needs to make budget reductions because its revenue is decreasing each year due to declining enrollment. The amount of money the district receives from the state, its main funding source, is based on enrollment. The district is facing a $5 million operating deficit next year. For now, it has a large enough reserve to cover this.
Matthews’ proposal calls for the number of teachers to be reduced by 25. Most of those reductions will come through teachers leaving the district for various reasons (retirement, change of job, etc.) and their positions not being refilled, but nine full-time employee positions will be reduced by layoffs. At last week’s meeting, the board voted 5-2 to approve the layoffs. Those people could still stay in the district if enough people leave for other reasons. But the board needed to vote on the layoffs by the March 15 legal deadline for notification.
The dissenting votes last week came from Board President Oscar de la Torre and Board member Maria Leon-Vazquez. De la Torre said this week the proposed teacher layoffs might be needed, but he wanted to make sure district staff “did not leave any stone unturned” before deciding this was the necessary route.
“The cuts should be made as far away from the classroom as possible,” De la Torre said. “And I would prefer staff to look at administrative costs first before we look into services or programs that directly benefit children.”
Matthews’ plan also calls for the reduction of two to three school administrators, two district administrators and 10 classified employees (those who are not teachers or administrators). Reducing the amount of consultant contracts would cut another $150,000.
Matthews wrote in his proposal, appearing in the Board of Education’s agenda for its meeting this Thursday, that the recommended reductions “are primarily related to making prudent staffing decisions based on declining enrollment.” He said in an interview this week, “I have to be sure we aren’t overstaffed for next year.”
But Keiley called the proposal “far too aggressive” on teachers. He said at least 11 administrative positions, including nine from the district office, should be cut.
“The time has come for them to walk down the hall and share in some of the pain,” said Keiley, who added that the district would function “just fine” with fewer administrators. “When you reduce, other administrators will have to pick up the slack,” he said.
He said district staff should analyze the more than $10 million of expenditures coming out of what’s known as the 5000 Account, which is used for various items such as utility payments, insurance, travel expenses and consultant contracts. Additionally, Keiley said the nearly $12 million reserve fund the district has is too high. The district needs to keep a 3 percent reserve by state law. The current reserve is nearly four times that amount, although a large chunk will be needed for next year to make up for the deficit.
“It’s excessive, we don’t have to have as big a cushion as we have,” Keiley said.
Matthews pointed out his proposal does not take into account what the state’s final decision will be on education funding. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed a cut, but it is not guaranteed the Democratic-dominated state Legislature would support this. Also, at its last meeting the board approved ending the moratorium on interdistrict permitting for all schools except for Santa Monica High. As many as 200 out-of-district students could come to the district next year, but this would not increase the revenue until after the end of the next school year. So the district would be adding an expense without additional revenue.
Matthews said the various financial question marks are less harmful to this district than it could be for one in worse financial shape. “That’s why we’re fortunate to be in a very healthy financial situation,” he said. “This budget is not based on fear. We’re just being very strict with our budget at this point. We think we’ll be OK.”
The board will review the budget at its meeting on Thursday, and make specific decisions at its April 3 meeting so that the schools can prepare for staffing in the fall. The budget must be finalized before the end of June.
Also at Thursday’s meeting, the board will vote on funding middle school projects with Measure BB bond money, including the $14 million middle school wing at Malibu High. The board tentatively approved this funding at its last meeting.
The meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. at district headquarters, located at 1651 16th Street in Santa Monica. The agenda can be accessed online at smmusd.org.