California’s $16 billion budget deficit has forced the Scotts Valley and San Lorenzo Valley unified school districts to make hefty cuts to make up for revenue that won’t be coming their way from the state this year.

“This is a statewide issue, and we are kind of caught up in the wheels of it,” said Scotts Valley Trustee Chuck Walker at the Feb. 26 board meeting.

Scotts Valley looks at layoffs

Scotts Valley Unified faces cutting the equivalent of 18.35  teaching positions, saving the district an estimated $900,000. The cuts will involve full-time positions, part-time positions and hours reductions, but the combination has not yet been determined.

The district must send preliminary notices to those whose jobs are on the line by March 15. Final notices will be sent May 15.

Kindergarten through fifth-grade classes will take the brunt of the cuts, with the equivalent of 11 full-time teachers likely to be eliminated. Half-time and full-time teachers at the middle school and high school also face reductions.

“The basic problem is that there is not enough money,” Trustee Jondi Gumz said at a Feb. 26 board meeting. “The money is not coming from Sacramento, so we have to give these notices, and I’m just sick over it.”

The equivalent of more than five full non-teaching positions are also proposed be cut, from maintenance workers at the district office to library clerks. Those cuts will save the district an estimated $218,000.

The reductions will slash the library staff in half. An assistant principal position is on the chopping black as well.

A handful of teachers and librarians spoke to the board, objecting to getting rid of teacher and librarian positions at schools. Most pleaded for the board to keep cuts as far from students as possible by finding other budget items to cut.

The board urged all attendees to write letters to state legislators expressing their views on the cuts.

The board voted unanimously to approve the list of positions to be eliminated.

San Lorenzo Valley trims raises

San Lorenzo Valley Unified will escape cutting teachers by instead eliminating their raises.  

“The bottom line is at the certified staff level, we will not be laying any staff off, but it will be tight,” Superintendent Julie Haff said.

To meet the budget shortfall, the district will discard the annual cost-of-living adjustment from its budget, saving more than $1.4 million between 2008 and 2010.

The district budgets the annual raises for the upcoming year rather than the present year, an unusual practice for school districts, Haff said.

“We are in a much better place because we do build in these raises,” she said.

In addition, the district will postpone hiring another groundskeeper, saving about $112,000, and take one-time funds from other sources to put total cuts at $2,149,700.

One-time cuts will take money set aside for technology upgrades, fencing around the high school swimming pool, carpeting and furniture in the high school and middle school offices and the remaining balance from the defunct Big Sur Charter School.

The district will apply nearly $300,000 from its reserve for retirement benefits. The district had been saving more than required by the Government Accounting Standards Board for retirement benefits.

“I want my teachers and principals focused on instruction, not ‘How is the district going to make cuts?’” Haff said.

One-time cuts will take care of this year’s shortfall, but Haff said they won’t be available next year if the state does not solve its budget problems. Staff cuts would be the next step.

“I can’t imagine California just letting its school districts go under,” she said.

Except for a late-arriving principal, no one was present at the Feb. 27 board meeting. Haff has hosted meetings with staff communicating the budget situation and the likely solutions.

Final trustee action was expected at a meeting Wednesday, March 5.

“I feel like we’re a boat that’s still afloat in some pretty hazardous waters,” Trustee George Wylie said.

Bonny Doon Elementary confronts cuts, too

Bonny Doon Union Elementary School District faces cutting between $14,000 and $50,000 from its $2 million budget, Principal Gail Levine said this week.

The district comprises a single elementary school that may have to reduce its art, music and physical-education programs to work through the deficit.

No decisions have been made, but Levine is fed up with California’s lack of consistent funding for education. 

“It really shows the lack of respect for children, in our state, anyway,” she said. “And a lack of respect for teachers.”

The school may be forced to institute a pay-to-play music program for older children, despite a $10,000 donation from Cemex that helps provide music education.

Levine said the school will not cut its basic academic programs or increase class sizes.