Some classrooms in are already filled to the brim, and Sonja Beck, president of the PTA at can’t imagine more.
“I’m already tripping over kids when I’m helping in the classroom. [The students] are right up next to each other,” Beck said.
But after hearing a presentation on the , she acknowledged that increased class sizes are just one of the many ways the district is going to have to tighten its belt next year.
About a dozen parents and a few children attended . The event conflicted with open houses as at least four elementary schools.
Superintendent Joseph Farley began the session explaining the need to cut as much as $50 million for the next school year. While officials , the rest will have to come from concessions with the district’s four employee groups.
Negotiations are ongoing, and Farley described the mood as “very, very collaborative.”
“We have had a very good professional relationship with our associations this year, and I think they will ratify the concessions we are seeking. They have significant power and authority through the negotiations.”
About 91 percent of the district’s budget is tied to personnel, Farley said.
“In a normal funding cycle and we haven’t been normal for a while, I would say you would be high if you had 85-87 percent personnel,” he said.
About $18 million in cuts can be restored, Farley said, if the voters pass for temporary sales tax hikes and on increased taxes on those making $250,000-plus.
The Orange County Department of Education is allowing the district to submit a budget that can react to what happens in November, Farley said. In other words, if the tax measure doesn’t pass, the district will lop off instructional days at the end of the school year and the employees will take furlough days.
“Until 4 years ago, there was never the word furlough in this district. The school day was sacred,” Farley said.
But if the district is going to need to take furlough days, then it makes more sense to have them altogether “in one lump sum” than scattered throughout the year, Farley said.
Other cost-saving measures include freezing automatic salary advancements, laying off some teachers to increase class sizes and pay cuts. However, , no employee cuts are contemplated if Brown’s tax initiative passes, and only the district wants to consider them if it doesn’t.
Farley walked the audience through the savings each kind of cut could save.
“They’re large numbers. It’s getting to the point where it’s getting frightening,” he said.
Basically, if the tax measures don’t pass, the district will be returning to the funding levels it received in 2003-04, said Clark Hampton, deputy superintendent of business services.
“It’s really disheartening to hear,” said Cindi Wolfert, who has children at and , both in Mission Viejo.” I have the same feeling listening to the radio today about the economy. It’s not getting better.”
The Board of Trustees will hear an update about the budget at its next meeting, 7 p.m. Monday at the district's headquarters, 33122 Valle Road in San Juan Capistrano.
If you vote for a the taxes this Fall, you are voting to support LAUSD and the state's general fund. Nothing else.
At least furlough days spread the pain to everyone and maybe some folks who haven't been paying attention will now and will step up to help make changes in the system?
You have to remember, as hard as we advocate for equalized funding, those districts who are enjoying more money advocate just as hard to ensure they keep their share of the pie. Who win? No one.......
So the teachers union wants furlough days because (1) parents don't like them so they get restored faster; and (2) no arguement over restoration language. I guess the fact that the teachers union can take up to 15 furlough days without a change in pay schedule and no reduction in pension benefits played no part in the teachers union insistence on furlough days only. Since the teachers union only represents its members, it is not surprising it would be self-centered on its members; and that it has no qualms about throwing our kids/students under the "bus," from what we have heard to date, neither does CUSD.
The fallacy of your argument is that you fail to recognize or understand the cuts & hits most families in CUSD have suffered over the last several years. At best, the teachers union has taken a 1.5% pay cut that has been largely wiped out by step & column increases. So what you & other union allies want is parents & students to take even large hits while preserving as much as possible the teachers union's salaries & benefits; if the parents & students don't what this to happen, vote for more taxes. What you comments make clear is that the teachers union & its allies are will to make students & parents in CUSD suffer even more in order to maximize that flow to the teachers union. If parents don't see and understand this charade and decide to stand up and advocate for their kids, then our kids will be used & abused as financial pawns by the teachers union.
How Jerry Brown Became ‘Governor Moonbeam’ http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/weekinreview/07mckinley.html I met Gov Brown back when he looked like the picture in this story. Damn, we got old. I always thought he liked the moniker. I think the problem with the nickname now is most people don't remember much about the last time he was governor and he no longer lives up to the name. He's more like a tired Unionist Democrat, not a Progressive Democrat.
And I am pro-immigration. Especially on the higher end of the spectrum. Not surprising a well educated person from Singapore is a university professor here.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/05/19/indonesian-maids-arrive-s-pore-next-month.html
May 15, 2012 3:13 PM EDT California’s fiscal crisis is mushrooming, and Governor Moonbeam seems powerless to stop it. Joe Mathews on Brown’s call for ‘stoicism,’ and why it’s not working. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/05/15/why-jerry-brown-s-bid-to-fix-california-s-budget-isn-t-working.html