Pacifica Schools Budget Crisis: You Can Help

BY MATT LEVIE, RIPTIDE EDUCATION CORRESPONDENT

Susan Vickrey, superintendent of Pacifica School District (PSD), and her Chief Business Official Josie Peterson gave a public update February 1 on the budget situation at PSD. The situation is very difficult. California is now either 48th or 50th in the nation in per-pupil spending, and Pacifica has the second-lowest per-pupil funding in San Mateo County. Over the past nine years, PSD has cut more than $2.5 million from its budget.

Last year, several factors helped keep deep cuts mostly away from the classroom: the parcel tax, which raised about $1 million, and for which Vickrey and others expressed their gratitude to the people of Pacifica; and about $380,000 in federal stimulus funds. (Anybody who thinks the stimulus didn't help Pacifica, think again.) This year, stimulus funds will not be available, and the governor's budget proposes still more cuts. The result is that the school district may have to find another $1.4 million to cut from its budget.

In their very thorough presentation, Vickrey and Peterson outlined some of the proposals to close the potential budget gap. Vickrey emphasized that all of these solutions were repugnant to her and that some would affect the classroom. Some of the proposals on the table include: five-day furlough, reducing the school year by five days (this year we had a two-day furlough); increasing K-3 class size from 20 to 24 students (and consequently firing some teachers with low seniority); creating a retirement incentive to encourage the district's more highly paid teachers to retire (current PSD teacher pay starts at $41,000 and maxes out at $73,000); replacing the vacant assistant superintendent position with a lower-level position; eliminating the physical education (P.E.) teacher; eliminating literacy and math coaches; not watering the athletic fields and eliminating a groundskeeper and custodian.

Caro Pemberton, principal of Oceana High School, and David Mineta, member of the Jefferson Union High School District (JUHSD) board of trustees, also gave an update on the situation at the high school level. Since JUHSD does not have a parcel tax (although it is considering one), its situation is even more dire. But Mineta emphasized that it is important for all groups (teachers, administrators, and community) to work together and not point fingers or tear each other apart. Everyone was very clear that the problem is Sacramento, not local. Wondering what you can do? Here are some suggestions:

Donate to Pacifica Education Foundation (PEF): http://www.pacificaef.org. Most public school systems on the Peninsula have a foundation that helps schools, and the relatively new PEF already helps with the budget gap and is very close to reaching its funding goal to provide the district with a credentialed technology teacher.

Join the Saving Pacifica Schools page on Facebook. Saving Pacifica Schools, run by PSD parent Kalimah Salahuddin, tries to effect change in Sacramento by educating legislators, supporting ballot initiatives, writing petitions, and arranging demonstrations. Please join and look under "links" and "events" for things you can do.

Our state Assemblymember Jerry Hill and state Senator Leland Yee both have been extremely supportive when it comes to education. But the governor needs to hear from Californians that eviscerating public education is not something we will stand for. Go to his web site and write him a letter: http://gov.ca.gov/interact.

The entire PowerPoint presentation is available for public viewing on the school district website: http://www.pacificasd.org/districtInformation/Board%20Packets/2010/02-03-10/7b.pdf  

Comments

[Bark Nuggets]

I think the time has come to revamp California's Constitution and I support having a Constitutional Convention. Efforts had been made to place an initiative on the upcoming election ballots, but despite popular support, it had to be dropped due to lack of funding.

California finds itself hamstrung by a convoluted set of constitutional and legislative procedures.

What Californians have voted on and passed with the best of intentions are the very things that have handcuffed our state: super-majority voting on tax matters, super-majority voting on the budget, the requirement to pass a balanced budget, the ease with which mandated funding levels passed by the public, and the ease with which the Constitution may be amended.

Super-majority voting allows a minority to block any progress on a tax matter or on the budget, as we've seen time and time again.

Every time the public votes YES on another funding mandate, that reduces the options the governor has when looking to come up with a balanced budget.

The constitutional requirement to come up with a balanced budget bites us on the butt when we have a series of down years. We're unable to borrow or run a deficit during the lean years and get trapped in this cycle of boom or bust.

The Constitution is absurdly easy to amend -- California's Constitution has been amended more than 500 times! Something's wrong, when in the same election cycle, the Constitution is amended to give rights to chickens (bigger cages) while at the same time removing rights from people (banning same-sex marriage).

California has a serious systemic problem that must be rectified first if we are to truly tackle all these issues that arise as a result.

[Laurie Frater]

"How much can be saved by eliminating the busing of kids to schools out of their neighborhoods?"

In the case of the elementary schools: zero.

There are a few kids (I don't know how many, but I believe it's a very small number) who get taken to and from school by bus under contract because of physical disability, but that service isn't more widely available because of the high cost.

Instituting school bus service is being proposed by some as the solution to the Highway 1 traffic problem. See elsewhere on Riptide (the "Scoping" thread) for details.

[sample]

How much can be saved by eliminating the busing of kids to schools out of their neighborhoods?

[Steve Patton]

My opinion on saving California:
(1) Create a 1 percent (James) Tobin Tax on all financial transactions: commodities trading, hedge funds, currency trading, derivatives, etc.

(2) Create a State Bank of California, requiring all state agencies to put their money into this bank. Model it after the State Bank of North Dakota (SBND), which is solvent, has a surplus, lends to small businesses and farmers, and supplies 4 percent mortgages to homeowners! SBND is the only state bank left; there used to be one in nearly every state.

[Bruce Hotchkiss]

Matthew, I don't dispute anything you've written. The point is that the state is more than $20 billion in the hole regardless of our standing in per-pupil spending, or how inequitable the spending is, and especially due to dear Arnold.

The point is that there is no money. What do you propose shorchanging to give money to the schools? Until there is a fix to our stupid boom/bust cycles, California will continue down the road to ruin.

[Dan B. Underhill]

Gee whiz, that was cynical! Luckily, I am often more hopeful than that. I'm not sure what I base it on, though.

[Karen]

Matt, thanks for a great summary of the current situation. The budget crisis is not new news; it is just bigger news now that it will directly affect the children. Pacifica School District (PSD) administration has proactively cut in all areas, particularly in administrative staff, over the past eight to nine years to try to mitigate cuts that directly affect the classroom. In recent years, K-8 schools staff has been reduced to one principal and two office staff to serve approximately 580 children per site. Custodial and maintenance staff has been reduced. The PSD administration office was the first area to feel the effect of the budget crisis, being significantly reduced over the past eight years. Making additional cuts to the administration would effectively make the district nonfunctional.

[Dan B. Underhill]

With the Republicans so completely bought and the Democrats so completely gutless (Speier & Boxer excluded, I hope), I (for one) fear what the outcome of such a convention might be. I expect that it might end up being decided based on whatever the multinational corporations want, as usual.

We need a constitutional amendment to reflect that corporations are NOT natural persons and that money is NOT the same as free speech, or we needn't bother calling ourselves any kind of a democracy anymore, but giving these clowns a constitutional convention is like giving the inmates of a madhouse or prison dominion over the nation and the world as we did with the last presidential administration. It looks too predictable. We need somebody smarter than I am because it looks to me as though the cards are so well stacked that the next "intelligent" life form that evolves will have to be the one to make (or, I should say, allow) any kind of real order on this planet.

[Matthew Levie]

@Todd: I can't really disagree with that. I'm curious what you think of the constitutional convention idea?

On the one hand, I agree the process is broken. On the other hand, that doesn't mean it couldn't possibly be made worse.

[todd bray]

Matt:

Not to defend the movie actor, but it's not all his fault. Granted, he comes up with ideas, but the whole budget process is wrecked. The whole picture of revenues, taxes, and proportioning is all wrecked.

That education and social benefits get hurt first instead of state employees or public officials is also wrecked.

This all points to the state constitution. The solution seems to start there with the rulebook, so to speak.

But like Lionel, I think you wrote a good opinion piece. Thanks for filling us in (those of us who don't have kids).

[Dan B. Underhill]

"Another example of the outrageous accounting tricks that the state is using to 'balance' its budget without raising taxes, like 'borrowing' money from cities and counties and increasing tax withholding."

Thanks, Matthew. Mary Ann Nihart gave me a petition on that issue. I left it on the counter at Salada Beach Cafe. Please, everyone, go there and sign it to stop the state from robbing counties and cities. Please also let me know if the petition is getting full.

[Matthew Levie]

Thanks, Lionel. I totally agree with you that Schwarzenegger has completely run the state into the ground. And I look forward to hearing how Meg Whitman will fix everything by doing more of the same.

Due to the legal decision Serrano v. Priest, the state provides all school districts with a minimum allotment no matter how low their property taxes are, and Pacifica was always in this minimum category (called a "Revenue Limit District").

Ironically, the state has found a way to screw the district anyway; this year it has decided to fund the schools not through property taxes but through income taxes.

What this means is that instead of giving the PSD its money in January and April, after property taxes come in, it will not get its money until JULY. So for six months, the state is not paying the school district ONE PENNY.

Another example of the outrageous accounting tricks that the state is using to "balance" its budget without raising taxes, like "borrowing" money from cities and counties and increasing tax withholding.

[Lionel Emde]

Matt,
Good article. Schwarzenegger is the worst governor in California's recent unhappy history. As I detailed in my recent story for Riptide, property values are in a downward trend and it's opening up major holes in municipal budgets that won't be filled by donations.
The system is broken.

[Matthew Levie]

@Bruce: three things.

One, California is now 50th in the nation in per-pupil funding. Every state in the Union has a budget crisis. Somehow they all managed to find more money for their children.

Two, school funding in the state is inequitable. Some districts on the Peninsula receive TWICE the per-pupil funding that Pacifica School District does. So it's a lot easier for those districts to shrug off the cuts.

Three, our governor rode into office by slashing the vehicle license fee, thus depriving the state of TENS OF BILLIONS of dollars in revenue. Slashing taxes sounds great when times are good; when times are bad, this is what happens.

[Bruce Hotchkiss]

Given the wretched state of the state's finances, where does PSD propose the governor and/or Legislature cut? What programs do they believe should go?

The problem is not that the schools are taking another hit but that there just isn't enough money to go around. The pot size has been reduced; robbing Peter to pay Paul just doesn't work.

[XYZ]

yes I can, downsize the district's administration office!