Updated 5/16/09 based on a conversation with Superintendent Gregory Franklin late on 5/15/09.
The Los Alamitos Unified School District has been attempting to balance a state funding shortfall of $5.6 million for the next school year. Part of the district’s budget plan included the layoff of over 90 teachers. The district previously distributed preliminary layoff notices to these employees. At the Board of Education meeting Tuesday, May 12/09, the board made the decision to finalize layoff notices for only the temporary employees.
All permanent and probationary teachers will be rehired. The district is still facing more cuts from Sacramento, even if the propositions are passed on May 19, which appears unlikely. Dr. Franklin indicated the district has identified enough one time savings and funding, that the permanent and probationary teachers can be rehired.
There is plenty of evidence to suggest that the district is doing a good job. All three of the district’s eligible schools–Los Alamitos High School, Oak Middle School, and McAuliffe Middle School–received the coveted 2009 California Distinguished Schools Award. Only 31 Orange County schools received this award and only the top 10% of California schools even meet the minimum testing results to qualify. Click below to go to the related article.
Los Alamitos High School SAT results are in the top 15 percentile of all California schools and the district’s Academic Performance Index rankings are generally in the top tier of all California schools. Click below to go to the related article. During the last several months, there has been a parade of public speakers at the Board of Education meetings and almost without exception, all have praised the work being done in our schools. Our performing arts groups and athletic teams consistently win competitions and awards. This high quality education, unfortunately, requires money and state taxes are the primary source of funds for the district.
Also unfortunately, public approval of California state government is so low, the effectiveness of the government of Somalia looks good by comparison. According to a recently released survey by the Public Policy Institute of California, only 4 % of Californians believe they can always trust the government in Sacramento to do what is right and 19% believe they can trust the state government to do what is right most of the time.
The state’s solution to the school funding shortfall is, of course, the propositions to be voted on in the special election on May 19. The public does not seem to think much more highly of these measures than they do of the state government. Of the 5 measures directly related to the state budget, none have a positive majority public opinion. and as the election gets closer, the public’s mood is getting less favorable to the propositions. If the propositions do not pass, more cuts to education can be expected. While Franklin and the Board of Education did not officially advocate for a yes vote on the propositions, Franklin did review what each of the 5 measures would mean for education.
The mood of the public could be summed up by the words of a public speaker at Monday’s Seal Beach City Council meeting. The comment, “Vote no on the propositions–let the state go bankrupt!” drew heavy applause from the audience in the chamber. Further, there was a tax protest attended by about 500 protesters in Seal beach last month. Click below to read the related articles. Weather the anti tax faction is large remains to be seen. They are, nevertheless, vocal enough to get the attention of our state representatives. One such representative, Assemblyman Jim Silva, although strongly anti-tax, is not enough so for this group–they are mounting a recall campaign against him. Click below to go to the related article. Our state senator, Tom Harmon, is also very anti-tax.
AS if the state level budgetary problems and uncertainties are not enough, the district still does not know the total money to be received under the federal stimulus funds and what strings will be attached to the money that does come our way. One significant part of this jigsaw puzzle fell into place this week when one of the larger parts of the federal funds became known. This component of the federal package will send about $2.5 million of unrestricted funds to the district. Two other parts of the four part federal package could bring the total to over $3 million and the last portion of the package is unknown.
This is the environment in which our Board of Education and district personnel are trying to determine how to handle the budget uncertainty and shortages in state school funding. The district is also looking to improvements in its labor union contracts which are currently under negotiation. The district cannot put labor contract savings into the budget until the negotiations are finalized.
So, what did the district do about this mess? In addition to laying off all temporary teachers, they have identified $2.75 million in one time funds and savings and created a new prioritized list of additional cuts. The Board gave the district the authorization to implement as many of the cuts on the list as needed to balance the budget. Franklin said they expected to restore the much maligned elimination of the over time stipends for the performing arts groups and “preserve all day kindergarten, we would raise the class size in K-3 from 20 to 24, and we would raise the 9th grade class size in English and math from 20 to the school average, probably around 32. The implementation of this prioritized list would allow us to rescind the {final} layoff notices this week of our permanent and probationary employees who received preliminary notices in march.” Thus, Franklin said for the temporary teachers, “the notices are final–for now.”
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About Dolores Barr, Publisher
Dolores Barr has lived in Rossmoor since 1992 and has created this site to provide local news for the people of Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, Rossmoor, Leisure World, Sunset Beach, and Surfside, California. My husband and I have had two students graduate from the Los Alamitos Unified School District and currently our Grandson, Ricky Apodaca, grade 3 at Weaver Elementary, is actively involved in youth baseball through LAYB and youth football through FNL.
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