Facilities and Construction

In the midst of very difficult budget times, we continue to have funds that can only support providing additional facilities for our students and staff. As many of you know, we have lots of students and teachers in temporary classroom facilities. We currently have a number of projects that provide work for our local construction industry and families while providing new permanent classrooms for our students.

As has been stated before, these construction bond funds (by law) can ONLY be used for construction of capital facilities and NOT for operational purposes. This is like bad news (can’t deflect our layoffs with this money) and good news (we can improve our classrooms for students).

These projects are currently under construction at Pachappa Elementary School, Central Middle School, Emerson Elementary School, and Mt. View Elementary School. I am including some quick pictures with the idea that possibly a picture is worth 1000 words.

Enjoy!

More Budget Information

We continue work to both close our budget gap as well as communicate information about what we are doing and what the circumstances are at any given time (as this picture is constantly changing based on modifications from the state, as well as the actions that we must take). In that regard, I provided some references to that information previously that is found in various locations on our RUSD webpage. At this time, we are also providing a Fact Sheet regarding some of the issues and information regarding the budget. As things change with time (e.g., May Revise, etc.), we will attempt to keep the Fact Sheet updated and accurate.

You can find the “button” to take you to the budget facts in the upper right hand corner of the opening RUSD webpage or click here. We hope that this continues to provide timely information to all as the situation continues to change.  Additionally, you may be interested in President Vanderzyl's OpEd piece in the Press Enterprise on Sunday.

Transparency?

I know that these are difficult times and the simple and obvious seems to be neither. My commitment is to continually work for transparency in our operations. However, that being said, I am clear that transparency is an ideal that will never be fully realized – but we can certainly get a lot closer – and then continue that journey. I know that our Board is committed to the same principle.

I understand that some of you are frustrated that we don’t have more and better transparency; however, I believe that we have made substantial progress in the past year (not that we should stop or slow the pursuit of improved transparency). My concern though is that sometimes, people are not entirely clear on what options are available to them. If I could beg your indulgence, I would like to make sure that all that read this blog are aware (based on the hyperlinks below) of the various mechanisms that are available – AND we will still work on improving our communication and transparency.

Our webpage is a great resource and the primary location of most of this information – as it makes your ability to obtain it easy (we revised it for ease) and anonymous. On the opening page are news items of note that constantly change. The Board meetings are available from the agenda (in full detail) to the minutes (yes we do get behind with our staff reductions), Board Sub-Committee meetings, and podcasts of our Board meetings. We also have updates on negotiations as that becomes available and appropriate. Relative to the budget we have essentially ALL of our budget documents online and available …e.g., independent audit reports, budget documents, interim reports, presentations, county comparison data, activities of the Budget Advisory Committee (BAC).  Obviously, there is a lot more there, but you get the idea.  Additionally, to the degree that someone wishes to request a copy of something we will make every attempt to provide it, and if you can't find it -- please ask.

We will continue to work on improving in this important area of our operation of communication and provision of information in a timely manner.

More Sad News

The Board met last night to make the next round of budget reductions to close the gap created by the State (group #4 of reductions if you are counting).  Mike Fine made a presentation outlining the specific reductions which included:

• Further reductions of Elementary Assistant Principals
• Adjustment of Middle School Assistant Principals Work Year
• Further reductions in district wide Department budgets (HR & Instructional Services in this case)
• Implementation of the previously discussed reductions in Athletics
• Elimination of all home-to-school transportation for High School (grades 7-12) students

This totals about $1.4 million and still leaves $9 million to be resolved.

This is clearly a situation where no one "wins."  It was very ironic and an unbelievable paradox that we had teachers from Mark Twain Elementary School which have been grossly effected (based on law) such that 2/3 of their teaching staff is being laid off -- while at the same time they are preparing to host a validation visit as a California Distinguished School (and we believe they will be recognized as such).  Similar circumstances are found in every phase of our operation.

This is all very painful and upsetting.  The best I can hope for is as some of the speakers asked:  ...what can we do together? ...what are we willing to do together?  While I still advocate your consistent calls and letters to our State representatives, I think our best solution is here between all of us in the Riverside / RUSD community.

And the Budget Woes Continue

Yesterday afternoon, the School Board met again in the journey to close the $50 million budget gap we have for the 2010-11 school/budget year.  As reported in the Press Enterprise, this was not an occasion for celebration by any means.  After lots of discussion, the Board determined in the Group #3 Recommendations from the administration to:

• Reduce 4.0 counseling positions
• Redesign High School Staffing for administration which includes:
• a reduction of work days for all High School Assistant Principals
• replacement of 1 Assistant Principal position at each campus with a classified position that would handle many of the former duties of the Assistant Principal
• Take additional "Tier III" reductions which involves state "categorical" money
• Staff Hyatt and Bryant Elementary Schools at levels commensurate with other schools which will cause more combination classrooms and a reduction in administrative and clerical services including the sharing of a principal.  Further discussion will take place as to what the future (2011-12 and beyond) should be to meet the needs of the schools and District.
• Reductions were taken in department budgets of district-wide operations

One recommendation that is still being considered and will come back to some future meeting is a 15% ($300,000) reduction in the athletic program budgets.

NO one is happy with any of these choices, but given the budget (based on State funding) and the circumstances of the day, there is little choice.  Based on the economy, we must do as is being done in private industry, we must redesign and reinvent ourselves.  The trick is how do we make it better with less investment.

Another Option?

In an effort to "leave no stone unturned," another option for the budget process is to continually look at the revenue enhancement side.  Beyond "cutting" budgets, how can we add more dollars to the budget?  One option is to take the possibility of a Parcel Tax Assessment to our community.

Parcel Tax Assessments are not based on property value, but is a flat rate (e.g., $25 per parcel).  Additionally, there are ways to exclude particular properties (e.g., senior citizen's homes) -- if desired.  This assessment is based on a community vote that would require a 2/3 pass rate.  Often the funds are targeted to a particular program that the community values. It is one way, a community can assist themselves, if that is a desire.  A number of progressive communities across California have done exactly that.  As an example, a $25 parcel tax assessment per year, could yield $1.6 million in additional revenue.  Obviously, that revenue can be raised or lowered based on the size of the parcel tax.

Board takes required action to balance the budget

Our Board of Education last night and continued to move forward with the horrific task of balancing this year's budget.  This requires actions NO one wants to do but they/we are obligated to accomplish.  These are unprecedented times based on the size and duration of these reductions.  The essential activity undertaken is to create the new future of RUSD.  The challenge is to become both more efficient (less money) and more effective (better results) at the same time.  While that seems impossible from this perspective, will be possible, if not required, in the future.

While that Board did approve the continuation of facility renovation, etc. -- which uses funds that can ONLY be spent on capital projects and not on operational costs -- they also began making those unpopular, unhealthy budget reductions that were recommended by the BAC, cabinet, and myself.  The reductions which amounted to $26.6 million included:

• A million dollars in management cuts
• Eliminating 6 management positions -- $632,391
• Reducing the management work year by 5 days (also commonly referred to as "furlough" days) -- $450,162
• Decentralization of the Central Registration Center back to individual school sites -- $237,294
• Elimination of Secondary Library Media Assistants in our middle and high schools -- $571,617
• Revising how we clean schools at night with what is hopefully a more efficient custodial cleaning model -- $527,650 (first year savings which could grow to $800,000+ in subsequent years)
• Further reductions in Tier III special programs that adds another $1,268,186 to almost $10 million in earlier cuts
• Utilizing $22,129,264 in funds that can be used only once ("one-time") and must be replaced again next year with additional cuts at that time
• Additionally, the Board considered and tabled (pending some clarification) $744,091 in elimination of transportation from home to school of secondary students.

In a related matter, the Board also authorized employee notification ("layoff) of employees that are impacted by the budget reductions.  Those notices included teachers, managers, and instructional specialists.  As I stated at the beginning NO one is interested in making these types of decisions and reductions as it effects us, our colleagues, friends, and neighbors -- BUT there is really no choice given the reductions handed to us by Sacramento.

More Budget Information

As questions continue to be asked about our budget situation (appropriately so), we have isolated an enhanced podcast with both PowerPoint slides and audio from Mike Fine's presentation on the budget to the Board on February 1st.  I realize that it is long (about 1 hour), but it will give you the best possible synopsis of information regarding the budget in RUSD.

Additionally, if you refer to page 2 of the Budget Advisory Committee (BAC) report provided on February 1st, you will see that there is a we have taken a reduction “of over $60 million in recent years.” The report goes one to say that the needed $50 million reduction represents 14% reduction in the operating budget.  IF (and we are NOT recommending this), there were a proportional reduction in all expenses -- it would equate to our teachers being reduced by 5+ weeks and a corresponding reduction of 4+ weeks for our students.  This is NOT what we are recommending, but hopefully it provides some perspective of the challenge before us.

Bad Can Be Worse

In the midst of all this District chaos and budget upset, there is another perspective. We have many in our community that have been severely impacted by the economic downturn. We need to help each other. Many families have lost employment or a major part of their income.

From a student perspective (which represents families in our community), we have about 60% (3 out of every 5) of our students at or below the poverty line and therefore receiving federal “free or reduced” meals. We have 1,500 students that are homeless and are in fairly dire straits. Of greatest concern, we have students that we suspect ONLY get to eat when they are at school (breakfast & lunch programs). One of our local non-profit organizations come together weekly, to provide 500 of our neediest students with a backpack full of non-perishable food to assist them through the weekend. What happens to them on a 4-day "weekend" like this one? These are desperate times.

Our Mayor has appropriately talked somewhat regularly about the social capital in Riverside. I hope that part of our collective capital is going to assist those that struggle more than we do. Do you know of efforts in our community to assist others less fortunate than ourselves?

Our employees are working to do their part

We continue to look for any and all reductions that we can make to our budget to minimize the impacts. This is NOT really possible at this point as we are in our 8th year of budget reductions. Obviously, there is less and less to find and we are a long way beyond just “improving efficiency.” We were pleased this past week (finishing this week) to bring site level stakeholders together to assist us with specific recommendations about what they see as possible areas to recover some dollars. Additionally, they provided us with information about what should we continue to hold as a high priority.

One of the ideas that many have forwarded to us over time, is the notion of employees taking “furlough” days or something similar. This is an item that is generally negotiable with our employee associations – and requires their concurrence. At our next Board meeting, with the concurrence of our management / confidential employees, there is a proposal to take an on-going workyear reduction of 5 days. With 92% of our budget wrapped up in “people” costs, it is good to see our colleagues digging in to do their part and help us work towards a balanced budget.

Has It Always Been Like This?

I had the occasion to spend Friday morning at RCOE along with the other superintendents and CBOs in Riverside County listening to Ron Bennett, President & CEO, of School Services of California. Typically, Ron and SSC are regarded as the experts in education financing in California. Ron stated what has been pretty much the message from across the state – the Governor’s January budget, while not good – is probably as good as it gets. As Ron stated, “California would like to meet its obligations, but it can’t.”

Probably the most interesting and illustrative comment that Ron made was based on his long history with funding of public education in California. Ron recalled in the days of Governor George Deukmejian when we had a situation somewhat similar to this, educational spending was dreadful. We were spending at $3,500 per student and prisoners were costing the state twice that at $7,000. The most striking part of his statistics is that we are currently receiving $5,014 per student (statewide average) and the cost of incarceration is in excess of $52,000 per prisoner (over 10 times that of educational funding). Solving the problems in California may have something to do with priorities.

So What Really Happened?

So trying to understand what happened to our schools and funding is really difficult -- at least for me. It seemed that everything was going well -- when BAM!! -- the bottom falls out and we are making all kinds of cuts. When we have completed those cuts, we have to make MORE cuts -- when does it stop? Where did we ever come up with the "running on empty" concept?

Recently, Mike Fine tried to provide a bit of perspective on what has happened with state funding of education. While it does not help me "understand" -- it does give me some more perspective on how we in RUSD are caught up in this mess. Probably most illustrative is slide 12 on page 6, which shows the last several years and some future years. While we had a significant drop in funds as represented by the blue line -- we were protected temporarily by federal stimulus funds (gold line) and short-term options (red line) -- the has hidden the REAL impacts (for a short time).

Tuesday -- A Most Interesting Day

Tuesday morning I took a quick trip to Sacramento and met with the Governor's staff along with several other superintendents. NONE of us like the reductions we are taking in education and the ones that we are likely to take as the state continues to balance it's $20 Billion deficit beyond the Governor's January Budget proposal. Realizing that we are and will take reductions in educational funding -- we need to try and influence how we receive the "cuts" such that we can use them most effectively to meet the needs of our students and classrooms.

The Governor did stop by and one point and DID reiterate his commitment to protecting public education and students as well as possible with the least amount of reductions possible. Given the dire circumstances of the state budget and economy -- that is quite a statement -- which, given the circumstances, I am inclined to believe that is his intent.

Beyond all of that the discussion in and around the capitol, as we consider what our long-term issues are, continue to make the case that this situation is our "new normal" and it is unlikely that we will have a "rebound."

Difficult times with impacts to all

This is an unprecedented situation and horrific times when we have to go through the process of laying off 160 teachers last night in attempt to partially balance a $49 million deficit. This is before the "next hit" that comes with the May Revise and the Legislative wrangling. We sincerely hope that we will be able to "bring back" some or all of these teachers based on retirements, moving out of the area, and general attrition. Our teachers and our staff are what we are about -- we are in the PEOPLE business. We hope that "early notice" assists in some small manner.

We have lost $66.3 million to operate RUSD over the past 8 years. We are losing $48.9 million for this coming school year (2010-11) for a total of $115+ million. Our broad-based Budget Advisory Committee is doing heroic work to find the least oppressive solutions -- but with these losses -- program, students, and schools cannot help but be impacted.

Trying to Balance a Budget without Money

As I am sure everyone is aware, we are in the midst of very difficult times. We are trying to balance our budget with the help of our Budget Advisory Committee (BAC) and any other help that we can find. The fact is that we made “reasonable” reductions several years ago and are ONLY left with “unreasonable” options/reductions. NO one likes or supports what we are engaged with at this point. It does and will affect our primary mission with our students. However, in the midst of all this it gets pretty confusing and requires a clear understanding of accounting.

As part of our discussions, you will see on page 16 (and footnote 10 on pg 43) of our audit that we have a fund balance of $72 million. Remembering that accounting principles require us to show left over money in one year (fund balance) before it is used / budgeted in the subsequent year – can be confusing. In fact, we have often talked about “one-time” and federal stimulus funds – which more technically might be called “fund balance” or a portion thereof.

So as a result, we do NOT have $72 million available, since it is essentially spent in the current year and has been budgeted since this past spring for this school year. Or it is part of the state and federal requirements for reserves, etc. The point is that we do have almost $11 million that is in that fund balance that CAN (and we would recommend) be used to resolve our coming budget deficit in 2010-11. In fact, the BAC has been discussing this issue and will give it further consideration this week at their meeting.

We are looking at ALL resources, including our fund balance, to resolve our budget deficit that has been passed to us by those in Sacramento. However, even on our best day, we are well short of the mark and have NO choice but to affect every portion of our operations. As I said at the beginning and have stated before we do NOT like this situation but we cannot avoid making choices to keep this District solvent and maintain the trust and integrity with our community.

Amber Carrow -- California State Teacher of the Year

It was my immense pleasure to attend the STATE celebration of one of our great teachers, Amber Carrow (Chemawa Middle School), along with her principal, Sean Curtin and Riverside County Superintendent Kenn Young. As you know Amber is one of five California State Teacher of the Year honorees. She was honored in a State recognition last night in Sacramento along with the other four teachers. Supporting Amber were two of her colleagues, Michelle Birchak and Joanna Burgess from Chemawa (as I understand it a number of her other colleagues also wanted to be there). Of course, she was also supported by her family and friends.

When it was her opportunity (which was first) Amber gave a short speech regarding the jewels in the Jewelry Department at Nordstrom Department Store. I am working on getting a podcast set up with her speech and will produce it here when it becomes available. Until then I have included a few pictures of Amber and the event.

As Amber is recognized, we should understand that she is not just representing herself but her teaching colleagues from across the Riverside Unified School District. As one is recognized, many are recognized. Congratulations AMBER and thank you to the many teachers and staff members that make it happen every day for our students. Riverside should be proud.

California and Federal funding

California’s application Race to the Top (RTTT) is “in the mail” to Washington, D.C. – which is no surprise. For varied reasons, some districts have and some districts have not signed on to what, at this point, is an unclear but real commitment (i.e., a blank check on district obligations). While many of us would/do support reform of our public education system, I am not sure that RTTT has any promise to get it done.

It will be interesting to see the reaction of the feds to California’s RTTT application. On a national scale, I don’t hear California being mentioned as a likely recipient of RTTT funds – which actually makes sense. If the feds are watching they will see that California has used stimulus (ARRA) funds not to enhance things but to essentially “backfill” state deficits – the net effect being that ARRA has “bailed” the state out not local school districts, local communities, or local people. At the same time, there continues to be evidence that, by any measure, California has one of the lowest commitments of per student funding of any state in the nation (hardly a resounding statement of commitment to educational reform). The other part of this state discussion is already moved off to the 2nd round of RTTT funding (this spring?) – “maybe we will qualify for that.”

The Governor is in a tough spot. He is in his final months of office, and he has not been particularly successful at bringing disparate groups together for commonly supported solutions. Through an “accounting trick” the Governor is promising to “protect” educational funding while reducing the same funding by $250 per student ($11 million to us). What makes us think that we will even have an authentic, balanced 2010-11 budget BEFORE he leaves office as Governor? In a totally incongruous environment -- At the Gubernatorial appointed State Board of Education (SBE) meeting that is asking what “program improvement” school districts are doing to improve and reform the school system – local school district Superintendents are saying, “I am here today to report to SBE, but going home this afternoon to legally balance our budget and layoff staff.”

I don’t know about you, but as I look at all of this from a federal RTTT perspective, I wonder “how in the world” that we would ever expect the feds to make that kind of commitment and investment in California. I suspect that until we begin to show signs and take initiative in California of getting our own house in order, the feds will be slow to sign on to assist us.

The World In Which We Live is Different than the Last Century

I am most interested in the tragedy that has occurred in Haiti -- along with most of the rest of you. However, what I find incredible is how quick things occur and how "close" we have become on this planet. The tragic 7.0 earthquake occur ed in Haiti last Tuesday at 1:53 pm (PST). Within 40 minutes the first Wikipedia site and entry was up and running -- and the Internet was "telling the story." In the next 24 hours there were 800 additions or edits to that same story -- and I won't bore you with the huge number of page loads. As major electronic media outlets began to get the story and tried to report on it -- without reporters in the field -- they provided "unconfirmed reports" that were pictures provided on Twitter pics. As Americans and others were in Haiti and tried to communicate with their family and friends -- and the phones, etc. were out -- the medium of choice was Facebook. And inside 72 hours of the event, I had a Time magazine delivered via US Mail to my home that began telling the story from that perspective.

Amazing communication with incredible timeliness. The challenge for us, as we observe all of this, is to begin to think about our communication and timeliness in schools. Our business fundamentally is about communication of information and its timeliness. How do we change things so that we can provide the same type of connection to our students, constituents and the world? What is your view?

"Protection" of Education

The Governor has promised our "protection" at the beginning of this month in his annual address. For that we are thankful -- I think. Upon closer inspection of the actual budget proposal we see less money to the tune of about $250 per student. That adds up to a loss for us in RUSD of about $10 million. While those in Sacramento would argue this is not a cut -- they just took an one-time reduction and turned it into a reoccurring reduction -- from my perspective it sure feels like a substantial budget reduction that will directly effect our students. Additionally, they are prescribing a small "negative COLA" that results in a loss of another million or so -- "a million here a million there, pretty soon it adds up to real money." These effects move our RUSD current $37 million deficit for 2010-11 to close to a $50 million deficit.

I am not in Sacramento (thank goodness), but we need our Governor and Legislators to "get real" about the state budget and the economy of this state. My concern is both this current budget and what is happening to educational funding. But beyond all of that (which some could argue is self-serving), what is Sacramento's plan for our economy and economic health in a global marketplace. I feel no less concerned when others are sharing the same concern.

Giving $$ Away

As usual, a GREAT event Thursday night as our Riverside education foundation (REEF) gave away over $115,000 in the form of 143 teacher grants -- in less than 1 hour. In addition, there are opportunities for 2 of our teachers to apply for and participate in EarthWatch -- what a tremendous opportunity. On of our prior EarthWatch winners/participants is Amber Carrow who was named as this year's California Teacher of the Year.
As is usual our foundation and community as a whole has stepped forward in difficult times to make things great for our students. As Brian Jaramillo, REEF Vice President, said, "each grant is a seed -- and now we will watch it grow." Great job REEF! You can find them on the web at: http://www.riversideschoolsrule.org/

Mobile platforms in the 21st century learning environment

Frequently, I have people ask me -- what do you think schools will "look like" in the 21st century? The reality is that I don't know -- but I think we have possible clues and insights into some of the possibilities if we continue to be curious and look around.

Recently, I stumbled upon one example/view of one way it could "look." A Texas university, Abilene Christian University (ACU) has launched an initiative to integrate various tools into their learning environment. They have various kinds of information available on their website. However, they also have an interesting 17-18 minute video available that more or less follows the orientation of an incoming freshman to ACU -- if you can put the Apple commercial aside. They have also tried to articulate the changes and differences between the learning and environment with have known in the 20th century with that they anticipate and "see" in the 21st.

While I am not sure that the ACU solution applies to all of us, I can see many of our high schools (and even middle schools) in the future having interconnected systems and applications similar to those demonstrated at ACU.

So what is your best guess?

Shifting Decades

At the shift of the decade from the 00 series to the twenty 10 series, it is an interesting time to look at where we have come from (2000-2010) and project (guess) where we might be going to (2010-2020). Thinking back to 2000, we must realize that probably MOST, if not all, of our students can’t really remember the time before 2000. For those of us “of age,” I can remember 2000, but barely. Wasn't that when we were supposed to store up food and worry about our computers due to “Y2K” – remember? At the start of the 2000 decade we had:

• A total lack of what we now call NCLB, Standards, AYP, PI, and the associated alphabet soup.
• A cell phone that looked and sounded a lot more like a phone than a computer.
• After a “naming” controversy King HS was established and had a total student population of only 850 freshman and sophomores.
• We visited Twin Towers in NYC and there was no such thing as nine eleven.
• The music industry was concerned about a new Internet option available – Napster ...AND iPod and iTunes did not exist.
• There was no such thing as Promethean Boards in the classrooms of RUSD.
• Bill Clinton was the President and Grey Davis was the Governor of California.
• Budgeting was something that we did annually as a school district, but it was “no big deal.”
• There was a Presidential election and we had trouble determining who actually won – guess each chad (vote) counts.
• We did not have a Beatty, Lake Matthews, Kennedy, Rivera, and Twain Elementary Schools.
• What do you remember about the “last century?”

So what might the next decade (2010-2020) look like; specifically with education in mind? Well here are some of my “guesses”:

• “Computers” will be obsolete as they are entirely mobile. Similar to the existing “smart phones” and possibly the forth coming Apple “iTablet,” the Intelligent Papers device currently in use at Arlington High School or similar technology.
• In the classroom demonstration of competence would be the indication of completion not time present in the classroom (like semesters, years, etc.).
• I should be reviewing the last 10 years of our collective accomplishments and the outstanding performance of our students and School District, and considering what a potential retirement (career change) might look like.
• Textbooks of the paper variety and arguably print-based books of any type will be essentially gone or in serious retrograde. They will all be digitized but probably in ways and with tones that we haven’t thought of yet.
• I would see a modularization of secondary education where there are fewer and fewer students that are solely educated a single site but gain a collection of courses and instruction from multiple sources (some digital).
• Transparency of student data in secure sites/processes to parents. Parents will have and expect full access to their student's performance at all times and all circumstances.

So now you know MY guesses. What are your guesses?

State of the Budget

As you probably know, the Governor has released his January proposal for the state budget this past Friday. The process takes several steps which will next require a budgetary analysis by the Legislative Analyst Office (non-partisan) and then the Governor’s May Revise. The May Revise will then be acted on at some point by the Legislature in their version of the budget. So we have just begun the process.

Our Governor is a “lame duck” as he will be "termed out" this time next year. His proposal is certainly optimistic including the notion that he will “protect” us in education – sounds good to me. However, there is little sense that he will be able to deliver on his promise. First, he is counting on the feds bailing him and us out – not likely. Second, as we heard on Friday from Assemblyman Nestande and State Superintendent of Public Instruction O’Connell – we will not undergo any “mid-year” reductions per the Governor’s budget (the unstated issue is that it is predictable that we will have a 2010-11 reduction). Third, this budget is based on lots of assumptions – many of which we question already. Fourth, there are other people and agencies involved that will surely think that they should NOT suffer the full burden of reductions without the participation of public education.

The Press Enterprise had a germane set of articles on Saturday explaining their perspective on the Governor’s budget – first on the front page and then in the editorial section. Dan Walters of the Sacramento Bee whom you may or may not agree with – but Dan has a 30 year longitudinal view of Sacramento and the Legislature – as he has been a columnist and observer that long. He had two relevant columns this week: one on the state of the California economy and a second on the budget proposal from the Governor – I believe both are instructive.

Bottomline, while we are faced with balancing the RUSD budget with all the known information – including no reductions from the state, we need to also prepare ourselves for the coming (though unstated) reduction in the spring and summer. Sorry for this news.

State of the State

Well the Governor has spoken – kinda’ – and he has said that education will be protected and will not take any more cuts. Good news on our parts. But wait a minute; already there are folks in the Sacramento halls and elsewhere saying that is a great idea but not a likely scenario. While I FULLY appreciate the effort and direction of the Governor, it will be tough at best – given the lack of resources. Bottomline, you can’t give what you don’t have. Our sources have been telling us for some time that the Governor’s budget (which should be released today) will not impact or have minimal impact on education – BUT that the May Revise, and realities in the spring and summer will be quite different. Longtime Sacramento political observer Dan Walters says that education will be protected in this budget – “when pigs fly.” We remain hopeful, but very cautious of what might be ahead.

On a different note it seems that Race to the Top legislation has been passed. It will be interesting to see how many districts actually sign the MOU – though from the Press Enterprise yesterday it seems more likely that even those that signed “intent” will be reluctant to move to the MOU. I do hear that Florida, Colorado, and now Louisiana are states that will be a shoo-in in this national process. I have not heard California being mentioned. Should be an interesting January.

So How Did It Go?

So here we are at the State Board of Education (SBE) at 9 a.m. as requested …on time and ready to go …but wait there are lots of other items on the agenda …and a room full of people. The “other” discussion is interesting. The parts that I find interesting are:

1. The statements and interaction of the State Board members
2. Lots of discussion about federal requirement and initiatives …and whether or how we as a state will comply with the situation
3. There was a clear discussion on the part of some of the members about poor performing or long-term lack of progress with some schools. The comments were about how we will “punish” (their word not mine) those schools.
4. Most interesting was essentially the debate over operating based on funding options or issues of principle.
5. A lengthy discussion about whether we do or don’t identify students from a racial, ethnic perspective. Overall the SBE balked, and does not want to go there with the feds.
6. We also heard about AMAO changes, API formula changes, etc.

Finally at 1:30 p.m. we get to our item #19, and the Board starts with a discussion of modified language for the Option #6 sanction proposal from CDE. At about 2:15 we presented our material, though interestingly we were never told of any time limitations until we arrived at this particular item. At that time, we were told that we had 5 minutes to present with questions following for the SBE. All seemed to go well and there was a good response from the SBE. After some others presented and more SBE discussion, there was a final decision of assigning “option #6” (which essentially equates to a mandated curriculum change) to RUSD. Of some interest SBE did assign some much more severe sanctions to other school district.

Again if you are interested in our full report, you can find it at our website or at: http://instructionalservices.rusd.k12.ca.us/rusd_state_board_report.htm