RBUSD prepares for major cuts
Superintendent Steven Keller has begun what has become an annual bad news tour of each campus in the Redondo Unified School District. He meets with teachers and delivers the message that the state, once again, is slashing its budget, meaning the school district must do likewise.
This year, however, the news appears to be worse. After trimming $5 million from its $65 annual budget in multiple rounds of cuts last year, Keller believes the district will face another $3 million to $4 million in cuts.
The superintendent, in a visit to Lincoln Elementary School on Monday afternoon, painted a stark picture. Last year, unlike most school districts, RBUSD was able to balance its budget without laying off a single employee.
“We all agree one layoff of a brother or sister employee is one too many,” Keller said.
Such an outcome is exceedingly unlikely this year.
“I am not here to advocate for anything other than we’ve got millions of dollars to cut and we are going to have to figure out how to do that, hopefully together,” Keller said. “If we can’t get to the budget number we need, at some point…what happens is attrition and layoffs. That is pretty much what we are looking at.”
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s recent budget message indicated that educational funding will be cut again this year. Although the exact size of that reduction isn’t likely to be decided for many months as Schwarzenegger haggles with the state legislature, the Governor’s proposals are for cuts similar to last year’s. The difference in Redondo Beach, however, is that the district received $3.6 million in federal stimulus dollars last year.
“Some people called that Obama money,” Keller said. “Whatever you call it, it’s gone.”
This next round of cuts will therefore be much closer to the bone.
“The state is making things very difficult for us,” Keller said. “I want to make that clear to you. The state promised to never go below [funding levels] of 2004-2005. They have. They lied.”
Keller described a variety of potential cost-saving options, including employee furloughs, a shorter school year, the reduction or elimination of summer school, increased class sizes, and an early retirement incentive program aimed at increasing employee attrition without resorting to layoffs. He also noted that the district has some good economic news insofar as its student enrollment has increased at a time when most surrounding school districts have seen declines in student numbers.
“Enrollment is your best friend, and don’t forget it,” Keller said. “…We are a destination district. Yes, you may have a few more kids in your class. Good. Because it’s keeping us employed.”
Keller argued that RBUSD still maintains the lowest class sizes in the South Bay and suggested that the district could sustain another small uptick in students per class. Kindergarten through third grade last year averaged 22.3 students per class, he said, a number that could increase slightly as a cost-savings measure. The superintendent also encouraged eligible teachers to embrace the early retirement program, which he estimated could save the district as much as $1 million.
“If I was in that situation, if I know I’m ready…I would retire now,” Keller said. “Why? Because there is a moral piece to it – if I knew over here is a newbie, a new teacher, who might keep their job…that would probably give me a little incentive to take that [early retirement].”
At one point in the meeting, a teacher asked what the outlook was for employees on temporary contracts. Keller was blunt.
“Start looking now….I say that with a heavy heart, but I don’t want to lie to people,” Keller said. “I want to tell you straight up.”
School board member Arlene Staich urged teachers to become involved in the budget process through their employee association. She said the board needed help in establishing priorities as it faces the prospect of millions in cuts.
“You can’t sit back and let someone else do it,” Staich said. “You have to have your voice…You need to talk to your representatives, because we are all in this together. If we don’t [receive help], we are going to have a whole bunch of layoffs. That is going to be our solution if we don’t get the money.”
The school board on Tuesday night came to an agreement with Public Agency Retirement Services, a firm that offers a retirement plan supplementing state retirement benefits and thereby provides increased incentives for early retirement. The plan will be made available to roughly 70 teachers. Twenty will need to accept the retirement package in order to make it cost-effective. The program will be offered through Feb. 26.
“We need to move quickly, so if we are in a layoff process, we have fewer layoffs,” board member Jane Diehl said.
Teacher layoff notices have to be sent by March 15, in accordance with state law. Classified staff can be laid off throughout the year, but must receive 45 days notice.
The board also discussed its budgetary priorities going into what is almost certainly going to be an enormously difficult decision-making phase. All agreed cuts should be kept as far from the classroom as possible while minimizing layoffs.
But there was some disagreement over whether the district should tap into its budget reserves. The state has relaxed a requirement that school districts must keep a three percent reserve. For the next two years, districts are allowed to drop to 1.5 percent. According to chief business official Janet Redella, this would leave RBUSD with $900,000 in reserves.
Redella said the district would face some dangers in doing so.
“We have had some midyear cuts that have exceeded that number,” she said. “If we get down to $900,000, we might get into insolvency issues if the state did do some kind of surprise reduction.”
Board president Todd Loewenstein said reducing reserves is still worth considering.
“We should try as best we can to keep reserves,” he said. “But if it’s a question of laying off a bunch of people or hitting the reserves, I will hit the reserves because I do not want to lay off people.”
Staich questioned how the district would find the money to replenish reserves in three years time.
“Come on,” she said. “Where are we going to get the money?” ER