Debbie Hamme
Congratulations to our two new board members, Nancy Goldberg and Laura Chardiet, and to Karlo Silbiger, for his election to the position of board president by his colleagues on the board. The board meeting was longer than expected for a meeting that was largely expected to be filled mostly with the swearing-in activities of the new board members, but of course, there was the 1st Interim Report that Mr. Delawalla presented to the audience.
The report held few surprises. We have come to expect the gloom and doom news that comes out of Sacramento, as well as the dire predictions that Mr. Delawalla presents to us. The thing that concerned me is that Mr. Delawalla predicted a short-fall of 1.8 million dollars to the school district due to the announcements that were sure to come out of the governor’s office on December 15th. Mr. Delawalla was unaware that the announcements had been made on December 13th and that rather than the loss of over $200.00 per student in ADA that he reported, we would face a reduction of $13.00 per student. And while $13.00 per ADA is significant enough, at 6,550 students district-wide, this means a shortfall of $85,150.00—not the 1.8 million Mr. Delawalla indicated. This was pointed out to those in attendance by Ms. Penny Upton of the California Teachers Association, but really, this is something our Assistant Superintendent of Business Services should have known.
Another issue of immense concern is our continued dependence on the use of independent consultants, mostly in the Special Education Department, which creates a crushing encumbrance on our budget. This is something that needs to be addressed immediately. We have been hearing for quite some time that we are in the “process” of hiring one in-house specialist or another, but the reality is that these changes are taking place at a snail’s pace to the continued detriment of our district and our students.
That we are increasing our allocation to “Services and Operating Expenses” by millions of dollars every year is something that “budget watchers” should be questioning at these presentations, but for some reason are not. If we are, as Mr. Delawalla tells us, deficit spending at a rate of 2 million dollars per year, solutions other than furlough days have to be investigated sooner, rather than later.
Debbie Hamme is the President of the Culver City Association of Classified Employees.
Something is terriby wrong when the person who provides crucial financial information for the School District does not know what is happening in Sacramento.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading Ms. Hamme's article, I went to Governor Brown's website and saw his press conference, which was a live podcast in the early afternoon of December 13. If I had held a similar position, I would have had the internet open and set to receive instant updates/feeds.
How can we rely on the accuracy of any of the District's financial data when a serious lapse like this occurs?
P.S. When I checked the California Finance Department website on December 19, it stated that the budget announcement was going to be made "by" December 15, not "on" that date.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I am very concerned about the money being wasted on consultants in special education. When I was involved in an IEP meeting related to my child this past fall, my educational consultant asked district personnel about the mandatory transition meeting for high school seniors (other school districts have them). No one knew about this requirement and--four months later--we are still waiting for an answer to our inquiry.