WUSD Board says passage of Prop 57 is crucial for school district budget

Windsor voters’ decisions can make a difference of
millions of dollars, dozens of teachers’ jobs
by NATHAN WRIGHT, Staff Writer
California voters will make a decision next Tuesday that will
have a major impact on school budgets across the state, including
the budget of the Windsor Unified School District.
Governor Arnold Schwarz-enegger is asking voters to pass
Proposition 57 – a $15 billion bond that, it is said, will give
state legislators some breathing room in dealing with the
continuing budget crisis. Leaders of the local school district
believe that passage of the bond is crucial to educational funding
in the state budget for the 2004-2005 school year.
“If it fails then all bets are off,” said Wade Roach, director
of business services for the district.
The district’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved a
resolution last week supporting the bond measure. The board is
urging the local community to vote next Tuesday in favor of
Proposition 57.
“All of these things will be easier if the bond passes on March
2,” said Board President Sandy Dobbins, referring to the district’s
upcoming budget deliberations. “This is so important to the
survival of districts in California. The parents need to hear.”
District leaders hope that the future will become clearer after
next week’s election. If Proposition 57 passes, Roach told the
board, the district may need to make budget cuts of only
$475,000.
If Proposition 57 fails, the district will be forced to wait for
state lawmakers to decide how they will fund the state’s education
system. Roach told the board that the current worst case scenario
is a 13 to 16 percent cut in the local school district’s $29
million budget.
“The only place where that’s going to come from, sadly, is
people,” said Loyal Carlon, the district’s director of human
resources. This scenario could mean layoff notices to as many as 31
teachers.
While the school board waits for the results of the election, it
has received a list of recommendations from the Board Budget
Advisory Committee involving cuts of $1.1 million from the budget.
The committee is composed of teachers, staff, and parents.
The recommendations include $724,938 that is currently
guaranteed in employee contracts – reductions that would need to be
negotiated with labor unions before implementation.
Included in the proposed cuts are a freeze to teacher pay raises
(a savings of $382,061) and the passing on of a greater percentage
of health insurance costs to all school district employees
($220,000).
The teachers’ union estimates that if the recommendations are
all successfully negotiated it will result in the equivalent of a
10 percent cut in pay. Leaders say such an outcome is unlikely.
Negotiations with the unions are under way, and are expected to
continue into the month of March.
The school board has set a tentative date of Tuesday, March 9 to
approve cuts to next school year’s budget. The meeting will be held
at Town Hall at 6 p.m. The board’s next regularly-scheduled meeting
will take place on March 2, the day of the election.