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| | CUCPTSA Legislation Newsletter – June 2010 Posted by Admin on Saturday, June 05, 2010 - 07:16 PM
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|  LOCAL
CUSD Budget:
Of the $34 million projected CUSD budget deficit for the 2010/2011 school year, approximately $9.5 million is still to be identified. The settlement with CUEA (teachers) and the cost savings/revenue opportunities determined at the February budget workshop account for the approximately $24.5 million which has been identified. The 2010/2011 budget is due to the Orange County Department of Education by June 30, and in order not to submit a self-qualified budget again, the district must demonstrate fiscal solvency for the 2010/2011 school year and two subsequent school years. In addition, as a result of the May Revise, CUSD could be faced with a $244 per pupil cut to the revenue limit, perhaps causing the budget deficit to grow.
The CUSD Board of Trustees has identified the following Core programs to be preserved and maintained as they continue to close the budget deficit:
Academies (HS)
Advanced Placement Programs
Athletics Programs
Co-curricular activities
Elective programs
IB programs
Keeping all school sites open
Music programs (including grades 4 and 5)
Preservation of class size (Grade 1 will convert to similar class size of Grades 2 and 3)
Preservation of teaching positions
Sufficient administrative and support staff services on all sites to ensure safety and welfare of students
Teacher Layoffs:
At the March 9th board meeting, trustees approved preliminary layoffs of 25 teacher positions in grades 4-6, 55 teacher positions in grades 7-12, 2 nurses, and 2 teachers on special assignment. The district is required by law to notify those 84 affected employees of a final decision no later than May 14, 2010. Therefore, at the May 11th board meeting, the trustees approved a resolution to authorize a final layoff notice to 39 teachers and 2 nurses. It is possible, depending on the final budget, for the district to “call back” those certificated employees. The 242 teachers currently working under temporary contracts have not yet been notified of their status for next year. The following link provides information on the current layoff status of teachers in Orange County: HYPERLINK "http://www.ocregister.com/articles/districts-244540-budget-layoff.html?data=1" \t "_blank" http://www.ocregister.com/articles/districts-244540-budget-layoff.html?data=1
Classified Staff & Management:
Classified employees must be given a 45 day notice of layoff. Therefore, at the May 11th board meeting, the trustees approved layoffs of 17 classified staff positions in the areas of bilingual services, instructional assistants, and pre-school resource teachers. In addition, the Board approved notification to 47 classified managers that they may experience salary and/or work year calendar reductions starting July 1st. At the March 9th Board meeting, the trustees had passed a similar resolution affecting 119 certificated managers and administrators.
Negotiations Update:
CUEA (teachers) -- On May 12th and 13th, CUEA members voted to approve the settlement agreement between CUSD and CUEA, and on May 19th the CUSD Board of Trustees approved the settlement agreement. This settlement agreement includes:
End Date: A three year contract – July 1, 2009 thru June 30, 2012
Each party can re-open two Articles in 2011/2012
The ability to restore teacher compensation cuts based on revenue increases:
CUSD must receive $1.7 million in state funding above current projections (combination of more dollars per student and/or more students) to begin restoration of cuts.
Teachers will receive 60% of the additional funds. First to be restored will be the furlough days which are student instructional days. One furlough day will be equivalent to an increase of $35 per ADA, 650 more students, or a combination of the two.
Salary and furlough days are restored when per-pupil funding in the district is $5,484 (increase of $500 over projection for next year).
The maximum health benefit contribution rates for the POS (Point of Service) Plan will be based on the 2010 contribution rate instead of 2009
The settlement provided approximately $19.8M General Fund savings:
4 Furlough Days (2009/2010) $4.1M
5 Furlough Days (2010/2011) $5.2M
3.7% Salary Reduction (2010/2011) $7.4M
Health and Welfare Cap $1.6M
Step and Column Suspension $1.5M
TOTAL $19.8M
CSEA (Classified Staff) – No updates
Teamsters – No updates
Permanent Superintendent Is Hired:
The CUSD Board of Trustees has hired Dr. Joseph Farley as the new superintendent. He is currently the superintendent of Anaheim Union High School District and will begin at CUSD on July 1 on a four year contract.
STATE
Sacramento trip – May 25 & 26:
About 30 members from our Capistrano Unified Council PTSA (CUCPTSA) Legislative Team spent two days in Sacramento listening to top education experts, as well as advocating for the children of CUSD. Our guest speakers included:
State PTA: President, Jo Loss; Dir of Legislation, Debbie Look; Executive Director, Paul Richman
Bill Lockyer - California State Treasurer
Gerry Shelton – Chief Consultant, Assembly Education Committee
Jean Ross – Executive Director, California Budget Project
Paul Navarro – Deputy Legislative Secretary to Governor Schwarzenegger
Glen Thomas – Former California Secretary of Education
Rick Simpson – Deputy Chief of Staff to Speaker John Perez
California Dept of Education: Lupita Alcala, Deputy Supt Govt. Affairs; Deb Sigman, Deputy Supt Curriculum, Learning and Accountability
Legislative Analyst’s Office – Edgar Cabral and Lexi Shankster
Scott Plotkin – Executive Director of the California School Boards Association
Assembly Member Mike Feuer – Co-Chair of the Assembly Select Committee on Improving State Government.
We also met with all six legislators, or their staff, that represent Capistrano Unified: Assembly Members Harkey, DeVore & Miller and Senators Walters, Wyland & Harman.
Hot Topics were:
State budget
Governance Reform
Teacher reforms – SB 955 Huff
Common Core Standards
A full report and an Executive Summary from our trip will be sent out separately.
State Budget:
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger released his May Budget Revision on May 14, 2010. The revised budget proposal outlines $19.1 billion in “solutions,” addressing a $17.9 billion shortfall and leaving the state with a $1.2 billion reserve. The solutions are primarily in the form of spending reductions ($12.4 billion), along with alternative funding and fund shifts ($3.4 billion), and $3.4 billion in federal funds (down from $7 billion in the January budget proposal).
The biggest change in the May Revision is the elimination of the CalWORKs Program effective October 1st for net state savings of $1.2 billion in 2010-11. The state would forfeit $3.7 billion in federal matching dollars and become the only state without a welfare-to-work program. The governor also proposes cutting in-home HYPERLINK "http://topics.sacbee.com/health+care/" health care for elderly and disabled residents for a savings of $637.1 million and cutting Medi-Cal services for a total of $522.7 million.
The Governor’s January Budget proposed maintaining state funding for schools at approximately the same level for 2010‑11 as schools received in 2009‑10. However, the May Revision adjusts, or “rebenches” the 2010-11 Proposition 98 guarantee downward by $1.4 billion to reflect the proposed elimination of child care programs administered through the California Department of Education. Therefore, the Proposition 98 funding level for 2010‑11 is $48.4 billion, of which $35 billion is General Fund. For 2009‑10, the Proposition 98 funding level is $49.9 billion, of which $35.8 billion is General Fund. The Governor continues to support more local autonomy in managing school funding through maximum categorical flexibility.
The Legislative Analyst advises the Legislature to reject the elimination of CalWORKs and child care funding. The LAO believes that alternative spending reductions—in conjunction with other budget actions—could help sustain critical components of these programs. The LAO also advises that rather than looking for ways to lower the Proposition 98 guarantee, the Legislature “should forthrightly suspend Proposition 98 if the minimum guarantee is above the level of funding that the state can afford.”
Republican lawmakers continue to reinforce their position against new taxes. They want to see more emphasis on job creation and support for small businesses in order to grow California’s economy. Senate Republican leader Dennis Hollingsworth also stated, “The preservation of education, public safety and infrastructure priorities is important and that shows in (the governor’s) budget.”
Senate Democrats’ Plan: In response to the governor’s May Revision, the Senate Democrats propose $4.9 billion in ongoing tax increases to help close California's $19.1 billion budget gap and prevent deep cuts in social service and health programs. Revenue includes:
Suspend corporate tax breaks scheduled to begin January 1 ($2.05 billion)
Raise the vehicle-license fee (VLF) to 1.5 percent ($1.2 billion)
Extend income tax surcharge scheduled to end December 31. ($1 billion)
Extend a $217-per-dependent income tax reduction ($430 million)
Increase the state's alcohol tax ($210 million)
Assembly Democratic Caucus Plan: On May 25th, the Assembly Democrats offered a California Jobs Budget Proposal to solve the deficit while creating private sector jobs and preventing cuts to schools, public safety, and social and health programs. The Assembly proposal also includes plans for job creation and retention especially in K-12 school districts, higher education, and local police and fire departments. The proposal is designed to be “revenue neutral” and passed with a majority vote of the Legislature. Components include:
Securitize the revenue from the California Redemption Value (CRV) Fund (deposits on bottles and cans) for the next 20 years by selling a $9 billion bond.
Pay off the securitization in the next 8-10 years with the Oil Severance Tax ($1.2 billion per year). California is the only oil producing state which does not require an Oil Severance Tax.
To make the proposal revenue neutral, the state gives local government 0.25% of its existing share of sales tax and replaces the lost revenues from the remaining $600 million of oil tax revenues.
Local government then raises its own sales tax by 0.25% and dedicates the entire proceeds to schools, thus freeing up a portion of the state’s General Fund obligation to schools. The total sales tax paid by the consumer remains the same.
Delay the repeal of the corporation tax increase for three years.
Under this plan, Proposition 98 funding would increase in 2010-11 from $48.4 billion to $54.3 billion. In addition, the child care reduction would be eliminated, $1.5 billion would be allocated to the base revenue limit, another $1 billion would be allocated to pay off mandates, and $500 million would be allocated to the class size reduction program.
Sources: The Sacramento Bee - HYPERLINK "http://www.sacbee.com" www.sacbee.com California Budget Project - HYPERLINK "http://www.cbp.org" www.cbp.org
The Legislative Analyst’s Office - HYPERLINK "http://www.lao.ca.gov" www.lao.ca.gov, The Capitol Impact Monthly Report, May 2010
State Controller John Chiang sent a letter on June 2 to lawmakers to sum up the state's current cash flow situation. While the state has enough on hand to pay its bills through August, Chiang warns that a prolonged budget fight or a Swiss-cheese solution could lead to more IOUs.
"A protracted budget stalemate or the passage of a 'get-out-of-town budget' relying on accounting gimmicks and unrealistic solutions will create cash shortfalls starting in October," Chiang wrote. "Because the state cannot begin conserving cash on the same day that it runs out of cash, my office will be forced to begin aggressive cash management measures, such as issuing IOUs, well in advance of any projected shortfall," he added. (Source: Sac Bee)
Governance Reform:
The Chairs of the Assembly Select Committee on Improving State Government recently announced a major package of reforms based on ideas from the bi-partisan, good government group California Forward. These ideas include a “pay as you go” system for the majority of legislation, limits how one-time revenues could be expended, lowers the vote threshold for the budget to a majority, and forfeits legislator pay, after June 25th, if the Legislature has not passed a budget.
On June 2, the Senate approved SB 1020 and SB 1426, two bills containing important elements of California Forward's budget reform principles. SB 1426 had only one no vote (Ashburn), and SB 1020 had unanimous support.
SB 1020 (Wolk, DeSaulnier, & Huff) incorporates two important steps critical to improving the state's budget process: performance-based budgeting and legislative oversight.
SB 1426 (DeSaulnier) requires longer-term fiscal planning and adds pay-as-you-go requirements for major new ongoing programs proposed in the Governor's budget.
The mirror image Assembly bills are currently in the Assembly Budget Committee, awaiting a hearing.
Teacher Reforms: SB 955 (Huff):
This legislation introduced by Senator Bob Huff would allow districts to lay off and transfer teachers based on effectiveness and subject need. Currently state law requires such employment changes to be made based on seniority. The bill would also allow school districts to notify teachers of layoffs by May 15, two months after the current deadline, allowing them to wait until budgets are finalized before making staffing decisions. State PTA has a “Watch” position on this bill, which is currently in the Senate Rules committee.
CSR Flexibility Bill: AB 2272 (Block):
This bill is being held in the Assembly suspense file due to cost reasons, which means it is dead. This is the bill that would have changed the CSR penalty structure from what was agreed to in the July budget agreement, so that schools with larger class sizes could have lost funding due to penalties.
Kindergarten Start Date: SB 1381:
On June 2, the Senate voted 28 to 4 for a measure that would increase the minimum age of those admitted to kindergarten, phased in over three years, starting in 2012. Youngsters would have to turn 5 by Sept. 1 of the school year they start, rather than by the current Dec. 2 cutoff.
The change would affect 100,000 children. Proponents of the legislation say half of the $700 million in projected savings would benefit those children through expanded public preschool programs.
"Both the research and our classroom teachers are telling us that California kids are starting kindergarten too young.'' said Sen. Joe Simitian (D- Palo Alto), author of HYPERLINK "http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/bilinfo.html" \o "blocked::http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/bilinfo.html" SB 1381.
State PTA has a "Watch" position in the measure, which next goes to the state Assembly.
(Excerpted from the LA Times)
HYPERLINK "http://educatedguess.org/blog/2010/04/21/still-no-common-core-appointments/" \o "Still no common-core appointments" Common Core standards:
The Governor and the Legislature are in the process of convening a 21-member commission that will make its recommendation on common core standards to the State Board of Education by July 15. Both the Senate and the Assembly have named each of their five members and the Governor is expected to name his eleven this week.
The Academic Standards Content Commission would compare California’s standards with common core and decide which is better. If it basically liked common core, then, in line with federal guidelines, it could alter no more than 15 percent of them. The State Board of Education, once getting the commission’s recommendation by July 15, must then vote the package up or down by August 2. It cannot make any changes.
Lawsuit update: Robles-Wong, et al. v. State of California
Stanford Law’s Youth and Education Law Project, part of the Mills Legal Clinic, is representing the plaintiffs in Robles-Wong, et al. v. State of California, filed in Alameda County Superior Court, along with firm Bingham McCutchen and attorney William Abrams.
The lawsuit calls attention to the disparity in per-pupil spending between California and other states — a more than $2,800 gap, the plaintiffs said.
Sixty students and families, nine school districts, the California School Boards Association, the California State PTA, and the Association of California School Administrators filed the lawsuit together.
They are asking a judge to make the state rid itself of its current education finance system, determine what spending level would meet “the needs of California’s school children” and create a new way to fund schools.
May 21st, 2010 | The Daily News
American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit against Los Angeles Unified School District: Reed v. Smith
A Superior Court judge has served notice to school districts statewide that the seniority rights of teachers do not trump the fundamental right of students to an equal opportunity for a good education.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Highberger issued HYPERLINK "http://educatedguess.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/tenure-rif-lausd-ruling051210.pdf" a preliminary injunction Wednesday preventing any teacher layoffs for budgetary reasons at three Los Angeles Unified middle schools where large numbers of teachers have been given pink slips.
In his nine-page ruling, Highberger said that state law “expressly allows” a school district to override seniority when layoffs would violate students’ equal protection rights. In agreeing to a teachers’ contract, districts, he said, cannot bargain away the fundamental right to equal educational opportunity.
Some districts do disregard seniority in order to keep teachers in hard-to-hire subjects like math, science and special education. But few districts consider how layoffs would disproportionately affect schools as a whole.
The judge’s ruling only affects this year at the three schools. The case must now move to trial for permanent relief. Since the suit is also against the state, there are larger implications – and opportunities for a negotiated settlement, which the plaintiffs’ lawyers say they’re open to.
May 14th, 2010 HYPERLINK "http://educatedguess.org/blog/author/johnf/" \o "Posts by John Fensterwald" John Fensterwald, educatedguess.org
FEDERAL
Nationwide Trial Urban District Assessment in Reading:
The U.S. Department of Education recently released the results of the 2009 NAEP Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) in reading. The study compares the performance of 4th and 8th grade students in urban school districts to students in large cities across the country. In 2009, 18 urban school districts participated, including Los Angeles, with between 800 and 2400 students from each district taking the test. Overall, only four districts showed improvements in 4th grade reading scores (Boston, District of Columbia, Houston, and New York City) and only two districts showed improvements in 8th grade reading scores (Atlanta and Los Angeles). When 2009 scores for these urban districts were compared with scores for students from large cities, though, a majority of the urban districts, including Los Angeles, scored lower than the average for large cities. For more information about the TUDA study, go to HYPERLINK "http://nationsreportcard.gov/reading_2009/reading_2009_tudareport/" http://nationsreportcard.gov/reading_2009/reading_2009_tudareport/
Common Core Standards Released:
The National Governors Association released the Common Core Standards for grades K-12 on June 2. The standards are for English-language arts and mathematics, and are designed to establish clear and consistent nationwide goals for students that will also make the students college and career ready. The standards were developed by a group of stakeholders including states, teachers, school administrators and parents, and took a year to develop. States will now have an opportunity to review and determine whether to adopt the standards. The standards, and background information, are available for review at HYPERLINK "http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards" http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards
In California, the debate continues whether to adopt the standards. Some experts believe that California’s standards are already very rigorous, and that the adoption of the standards will be an expensive and time-consuming process. Others fear that the failure to adopt the standards could jeopardize federal funding in the future, and believe that the new common standards could address some weaknesses in current California standards.
Federal State Longitudinal Data Systems Grant Results:
Although California was awarded one federal grant in 2009 to improve its state education data systems, CALTIDES and CALPADS, it missed out on the recent ARRA data grants awarded to 20 states in May 2010. California placed 26th in the competition, just under the funding cut-off.
After ongoing problems and delays in the implementation of both the teacher and pupil data systems, Governor Schwarzenegger has indicated that he will outsource operation of the databases by the end of the year if the California Department of Education does not have them up and running.
Race to the Top Application:
California submitted its application for up to $700 million in federal Race to the Top grant funds by the June 1 deadline. This application was spearheaded by seven school districts, with a total of 300 school districts statewide joining the application. Santa Ana Unified School District was the only school district in Orange County that signed onto the application. California’s application was improved by focusing on stronger teacher and administrator evaluation plans that would include student test scores, a more detailed STEM (science, technology engineering, and math) education plan, and other changes improving the availability of effective teachers at low-performing schools. One relative weakness of the application is the lack of strong support from teacher unions, with only one union from a large district (Fresno Unified) signing on to the application, along with a number of unions representing charter schools.
Nationwide, 35 states and the District of Columbia applied for a share of $3.4 billion in Race to the Top funds in this second round. Depending on the size of the winning states, about 10 to 15 states are expected to win grants. Winners will be announced by the end of September
Education Jobs Fund:
Both the House and Senate are considering proposals to create an education jobs fund that would provide $23 billion in funding to states nationwide. On the House side, Representative Obey (D-WI) has discussed including the funding in a Supplemental Appropriations Bill (H.R. 4899) that makes appropriations for defense and other programs for the current fiscal year. On the Senate side, Senator Harkin (D-IA) has proposed the Keep Our Educators Working Act (S. 3206) that would extend federal stimulus funding for education for an additional year to avoid the funding cliff currently faced by school districts. Supporters of both bills point to the projected savings of 300,000 education jobs, while opponents express concern about the growing federal deficit and the cost of the fund.
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