During a well attended board meeting at Crestmoor school last night, the San Bruno Park school district board unanimously voted to move forward with proposed teacher layoffs in order to meet its budget shortfall. The board, driven by a deadline of March 15th, will be issuing letters of intent to the affected staff. The district is required to maintain fiscal solvency and must reduce expenditures by $3.3 million for the 2010-2011 school year.
The San Bruno Park School district has been affected by the Governor’s proposed budget cuts to class size reduction spending. Other programs such as art, reading and library services also look to be cut.
During the board meeting, board trustee Skip Henderson said he simply “doesn’t trust the state” to make the right choice for education. “Who knows what the state’s May revisions will hold?” asked Henderson. All board members indicated that making these cuts were something they didn’t want to do, but ultimately they are responsible for maintaining the district’s fiscal solvency.
The board is looking into all options in order to keep classroom sizes to a minimum and fund programs. Funding for twenty four FTE’s as well as the districts Library Media Aids are in jeopardy. As a result the board is considering applying for an exception to the State Allocation Board to release $29 million in funds earmarked for capital expenditures such as the Parkside intermediate school renovation.
Although the letters of intent will be issued by March 15th, the affected staff will not officially be let go by the district until May 15th. Until that time, all citizens are encouraged to contact their elected representatives. The Governor’s proposition 98 plan for 2010-2011 purposefully reneges on a statutorily agreed maintenance factor payment of $9.9 billion to California schools. The Governor is also proposing to eliminate the sales tax and fuel on replace it with an excise tax. Both measures serve to lower the general fund and result in lower minimum guarantees for schools.
Patrick Flynn, President of the San Bruno Education Foundation, spoke to the board and said the foundation’s goal is to help raise $109,000 to retain library media aide services for the upcoming year. Without the media aides, students will not have access to any of the services the library’s provide, including books and computer labs.
The board is conducting a study session on Wednesday, March 18th to discuss viable options for keeping teachers and services. The meeting will be held at the school district office on 500 Acacia. For more information, contact the SBPSD at (650) 624-3100.
