The school district board will decide Thursday how many employees, including teachers, counselors and nurses, it will layoff to reduce its budget deficit.
By Jonathan Friedman / Special to The Malibu Times
It remains up in the air as of Tuesday afternoon how many layoffs the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District staff will recommend to the Board of Education at its meeting on Thursday. Mike Matthews, assistant superintendent for human resources, said the district is waiting to see if the teachers union approves a new labor agreement and the final word on how many teachers plan to retire. The district needs to reduce its spending because it says it is facing a deficit between $12 million and $14 million next year.
Matthews said the number of proposed layoffs would be presented to the board at the meeting. The staff will also present a proposal to demote four administrators to teaching positions as a cost-cutting measure.
The board last month approved a proposal to let go of 92 employees, including teachers, counselors and nurses. Matthews said at the meeting that the number could go down depending on a variety of factors, including the status of a labor agreement for five furlough days this year and next year, as well as how many employees announce their intention to retire or leave the district for other reasons. By state law, the district must let employees know by March 15 if they will be losing their jobs at the end of the school year.
Those who receive layoff notices could still return if more money is made available through the approval of the parcel tax measure going before voters next month. Jobs could also be saved if the state decides to give more money than it has said it will and if the federal government chooses to boost its contribution to education as it did last year.
The Santa Monica-Malibu Classroom Teachers Association was to have voted last week on a labor agreement for the furlough days, which is part of a plan to save $2 million this year and next year. As of Tuesday, the union had not reported election results to the district. SMMCTA President Harry Keiley did not return calls for comment. District employees represented by the Service Employees International Union have already approved the furlough plan.
Matthews said on Tuesday that he could not say how many fewer employees would need to be laid off if the agreement were approved, but that “it is a significant number.” He declined to say how many employees had said they would retire.
Parcel tax campaign underway
Meanwhile, the district campaign is gearing up for a $198-per-parcel tax that would generate an estimated $5.7 million for the district. Superintendent Tim Cuneo hosted an informational session for the district on its financial status last week. Two board members and two district volunteers joined him.
District voters have overwhelmingly supported recent funding measures, but with two-thirds support needed for passage, even the smallest opposition is a threat. A 2002 proposal for a $300-per-parcel tax failed when it only garnered 60 percent support. The SMMUSD put a $225 measure before the voters less than one year later that did pass by a slim margin.
Santa Monica resident Mathew Millen, who has headed the opposition for all the recent SMMUSD and Santa Monica College tax measures, is leading the charge again this year. He called the current proposal “regressive” and said the district should receive more funding through the City of Santa Monica to cover its deficit.
“This parcel tax is really a tax that lets the Santa Monica business elite get off cheap,” Millen said. “The Loews Hotel [in Santa Monica is] paying the same amount as a small homeowner.”
Parcel tax advocates say a proposal to charge larger facilities a higher amount puts the SMMUSD at a legal risk that it does not have the time and money to fight. Most California school district tax measures are for a uniform per-parcel cost, with some exceptions. The Albany Unified School District in November got a tax passed that charges the same amount for all residences, but places a per-square-foot cost on nonresidential properties. It has not been challenged, but a similar measure approved in the Alameda Unified School District in 2008 is in litigation. A settlement is pending before that Board of Education, and that district is looking to present a modified measure to the voters in June.
“We didn’t want to take some kind of a risk that would lead to a stay on the measure, and lengthy and costly litigation,” said Rochelle Fanali, who sat on the committee that recommended the parcel tax to the Board of Education.
Millen said that is not a good reason to put what he considers to be an unfair tax on the ballot.
“Why don’t they litigate it?” Millen asked. “They don’t want to be fair because they’re afraid of litigation?”
Millen said the money the district needs should be coming from the Santa Monica government, which he says spends too much on social programs. The city gives approximately $6 million each year to the SMMUSD, but Millen said the amount should be increased to “whatever the school district needs to make up its deficit.”
Malibu resident Doug O’Brien said the district should not look for additional funding, rather it should just make budget cuts. O’Brien said he has not thoroughly examined the SMMUSD’s finances, but he is sure there is plenty of overhead that can be eliminated.
“In my household, when we run out of money, we quit spending,” O’Brien said. “I don’t just keep spending until I get impoverished. If I can’t afford to buy something, I don’t buy it. Government doesn’t seem to think that way.”
O’Brien said an example of the SMMUSD’s overspending is Cuneo’s salary. According to a report released last year by the Los Angeles County Office of Education, Cuneo’s $270,000 salary package at the time was the second highest in the county. This includes a $220,000 base salary, $38,000 housing allowance and $12,000 automobile and cell phone stipend. Cuneo recently accepted a 10 percent reduction in his housing allowance and stipend as well as a salary reduction worth five days of work.