Board adopts plan to cut $1.5 million from school budget

Board members bemoan difficulty of cutting valued
programs and staff
by NATHAN WRIGHT – Staff Writer
After weeks of discussion and public input, the Windsor School
Board approved $1.5 million worth of budget cuts last week at a
special meeting at Mattie Washburn School.
Although this isn’t the first time the board has been asked to
make cuts, the magnitude of the reductions forced upon them this
year was dismaying.
“This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done as a board member,”
said Board Vice-President Ted Seche. “In the seven years I’ve been
on the board I’ve never done anything this difficult.”
The board was asked to make $600,000 worth of cuts just last
year. While Seche says those cuts were not easy, they were nothing
like this year’s $1.5 million in cutbacks. “We’re cutting much
deeper into programs,” he said. “There was nothing we could cut
(this year) except programs that were extremely important to
us.”
All of the board members shared Seche’s views.
“All of our staff in all of our programs are valued by this
board,” said Board Member Sandy Dobbins. “There is no way to do
this and have people leave here happy.”
“Every cut ultimately affects students,” added Board Member
Cheryl Scholar. “I don’t like any of the ways they impact.”
Even with the cuts, there are reasons for the district to remain
optimistic. The district continues to grow every year, which
increases funding. There is also a chance that the California state
budget won’t be as bad as currently believed, allowing the Windsor
Unified School District (WUSD) to save a portion of the estimated
$1.5 million it was forced to cut last week.
The board designed its reduction plan accordingly, approving a
tiering plan designed to save portions of programs if cuts are
reduced. Under tiering, incremental reductions are made in several
rounds instead of a single cut.
For example, transportation is one of the first programs
scheduled to be reduced by a total of $128,000. Without tiering,
the entire amount would be cut before other programs are reduced.
Using tiering, transportation will only lose a percentage of that
$128,000 before the remaining programs are also incrementally
reduced.
Under the school board’s reduction plan, three tiers were
established. The easiest cut, charging the Child Nutrition Service
for its custodial needs, sat atop the list for $49,397. Athletics
is the next program to be cut, but only by 10 percent. Without
tiering, the program would have been slashed 25 percent. Under
tiering, it’s in line to take another 10 percent hit if the
district is asked to make $496,986 worth of cuts, and a final five
percent cut if the district is asked to slash $1.1 million.
Transportation would be cut by $99,840 in the first tier, which
the board has been assured will be taken care of with a fee hike to
parents. Under such a plan, no bus routes will be eliminated.
Personnel cuts in the first tier, some of which may result in
layoffs, included: a 10 percent reduction to landscape/grounds
($16,078), a 10 percent reduction to custodial ($105,931), a five
percent district wide staff decrease ($55,000), a five percent
district wide administration decrease ($85,000) and the decision
not to fill a currently vacant half-time nursing position
($32,848). The first tier includes $484,053 worth of cuts.
The board members expressed a need to keep the cuts away from
the classroom, but Board Member Rick Massell warned that custodial
cuts are as dangerous to students as cuts closer to the classroom.
“They say make cuts that least affect the students and the
classroom,” he said. “If there are no custodians, there are huge
health issues.”
The second tier is highlighted by two teacher cuts; one at the
Windsor High School and one at Windsor Middle School.
Superintendent Robert Carter said that he hopes that both
positions will be saved through negotiations with the teachers
union. Also included in the second tier of cuts is reductions to
landscape/grounds (five percent), custodial (five percent), library
techs (15 percent), the district tech (40 percent), kindergarten
aides (25 percent), elementary counselors (10 percent), noon duty
(20 percent), middle school counselors (10 percent), high school
counselors (10 percent) and middle school/high school advisors (10
percent). The second tier brings the cumulative reductions to
$989,818.
If the district if forced to carry out the third tier of the
reduction plan, it would have to operate without a health tech (a
final 90 percent) and kindergarten aides (a final 75 percent), and
without half of its middle school counselors (50 percent total), a
majority of its elementary counselors (70 percent total) and its
district tech (80 percent total).
The board decided to remove reading teachers and retain the
class-size reductions from the list of cuts all-together.
The board selected cuts from a list of recommendations compiled
from both the Administrative Cabinet and the School Board Budget
Advisory Committee.
Now that the board has agreed on the list of cuts, the district
will be asked to fulfill them over the course of the coming months.
Certified positions, including teachers, must be notified of
layoffs by March 15. Classified positions, including maintenance
workers and office staff, can be laid off 30 day notices, allowing
the district to hold off on layoff notices for the time being.
Layoffs may be avoided if the California state budget is
approved soon, but Carter says that many fear it may not happen
until next September-October.
“They’re supposed to have the budget by July 1,” Carter said.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time now, and I don’t remember
many times that the budget was on time. From what I understand it
isn’t close.”