Teaching positions may be the first to go.
By Jonathan Friedman / Assistant Editor
With the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District facing a $5 million operating deficit next year and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposing a cut in education spending, the district will need to make some budget reductions. Assistant Superintendent Mike Matthews presented an initial proposal at last Thursday’s Board of Education meeting. The $2.5 million reduction plan includes the cutting of teaching and administrative positions.
“We’re not going to find books and pencils and stuff we can cut,” Matthews said. “We have to cut people. That’s not a pleasant topic, but it’s a budget reality.”
Matthews called for the elimination of seven elementary school teaching positions and 18 jobs in the secondary schools. Specific certified staff reductions will be proposed for a vote at a special meeting on March 5.
The teaching reductions would cut $1.25 million from the budget, he said. “We are in the process of considering many other reductions,” said Matthews, adding that this includes administrative and other non-teaching positions.
Matthews said all reductions would be made with a goal to keep elementary school teacher-to-student ratios at 20 to 1 for grades K-3, 30 to 1 at grades 4-5 and 31 to 1 for middle schools and high schools.
Board member Kathy Wisnicki said at the meeting she would like to explore the possibility of reducing the number of sub-schools at Santa Monica High School. The school currently is divided into six smaller schools called “houses,” each with its own administration.
“That’s a tremendous cost saving without hurting the children,” Wisnicki said.
Wisnicki and other board members also suggested an examination of the teacher-to-student ratio at Santa Monica Alternative Schoolhouse, also known as SMASH. This grade 1-8 school operates almost independently from the district and has a lower teacher-to-student ratio than other middle and elementary schools.
The district will be able to sustain budget shortfalls over the next couple of years because of its $11 million reserve. But as it continues to use the reserve to fund the widening gap between expenses and revenue, it will soon run that source dry. Therefore, budget cuts will have to increase in future years. The state requires the district to maintain at least a 3 percent reserve.
The major reason for the reduced revenue is declining enrollment. The district receives most of its funding from the state and the amount it receives is based on daily attendance. To lessen the enrollment problem and to make sure dwindling populated elementary schools in Malibu don’t become too small to function, the Board of Education at the meeting approved lifting the moratorium on allowing students outside the district to attend schools in Santa Monica for grades K-8 and all Malibu grade levels. The moratorium would remain for Santa Monica High. As many as 200 interdistrict permits will be distributed for next year.
Meanwhile, despite the budget problems, the teachers will still be getting a raise. The board officially approved a 3 percent salary increase for the teachers as part of a new contract that retroacts to July 2007 and continues through June 2009. It was not released how much money the raises will total, but an updated budget analysis contained in the board agenda shows a increase in teacher salaries by a little more than $1 million for “3 percent increase and other changes.”
The classified staff’s (non-teaching positions) union remains in negotiation with the district on a new contract. Their previous contract expired last summer. A large number of classified staff came to the board meeting, with some of them saying they thought it was inappropriate the teachers were getting their second consecutive raise (they received one last year), while negotiations with the classified staff continue.
Almost lost among the talk of budget issues was the board’s vote on the Measure BB Advisory Committee’s revised recommendation for $42 million of Measure BB facilities improvement bond money to go to the middle schools, including $14 million for the construction of a middle school wing at Malibu High School.
The board tentatively approved the recommendation, and the item will be brought back for a vote on March 13. But Board Vice President Jose Escarce said he wanted the resolution to note that the money was being allocated “without taking into account the possible impact of the enrollment projections.” He said this does not mean the money could later be taken back, but that there might be a re-scoping of the projects because of declining enrollment. The board will be presented with updated enrollment projections next month that will take into consideration the addition of interdistrict-permitted students and other factors.
Superintendent Dianne Talarico said she did not believe enrollment projections would affect the middle school project at Malibu High and those at the Santa Monica middle schools because they are “transformation projects” that are needed.