Sweetwater and Chula Vista return to school –including all teachers!

Amid budget cuts to public education, there were at least some good news when the two major school districts in the South Bay began classes on Monday, July 27.
 Both the Sweetwater Union High School District and the Chula Vista Elementary School District, which between the two have about 70,000 students, didn’t lay-off any full-time regular teachers for the 2009-2010 academic year.
 Although Sweetwater is facing an $11.5 million in cuts for this year and an additional $16 million expected to be cut after the state budget was approved, the district made an effort of not laying-off any teachers and staff members, said Superintendent Dr. Jesus Gandara.
 “Whether you’re a bus driver, teacher, or administrator, you’re going to maintain your job this school year in Sweetwater,” he said.
 But the district did have to make major cuts in support programs, such as reductions to summer school, reductions to all operating budgets, and special education reductions to paraprofessionals.
 Granger Junior High School Principal Susan Mitchell said that at her school, they couldn’t have book replacements this year, and there had to be reductions in classroom materials.
 “One of the things that we need to talk about is that the financial problem is with us,” she said. “It is a reality.”
 Since last year, Mitchell said that the school had decided that among its priorities were keeping the after-school tutoring program, which helps students keep up with school work and serves as a way to maintain kids off the streets.
 Gandara said he expects no teacher layoffs for next year either, although he said with the state reductions to education this is going to be tougher and tougher to maintain in the next three years.
 One way that Gandara said parents can contribute to helping the district face the budget crisis is to send their children to school every day.
 “If your child show up, we make money; if they don’t come, we lose money,” he said. “If we could increase attendance one day, that would represent $1.5 million more, two days would mean $3 million. That’s big.”
 Another advantage of not missing school, is that schools don’t have to spend as much on remedial courses, he said.
 The Chula Vista Elementary School District is perhaps the only school district in the South Bay that has a better situation this year.
 “CVESD did not face the same degree of cuts this year because as a system, we have made significant adjustments over the past years with major adjustments in 2008/09,” said Superintendent Dr. Lowell Billings.
 Chula Vista did not release any probationary or tenured teachers. It did release some temporary teachers due to returning staff and other staffing adjustments related to enrollment.  It also released a number of classified positions when grants and programs disappeared. But the majority of classified employees were assigned to new positions. 
 The State eliminated programs like High Priority Schools, Reading First (Federal), and categorical initiatives, Billings said.
 The district did preserve its smaller class sizes (class size reduction) with current staffing projected at 18.9 to 1 in grades K-3 and 28.9 in the upper grades. 
 “We are one of the few school district success stories,” said Anthony Millican, spokesperson for the school district. “The budget our Board adopted for 2009-10 was actually 3.4 percent higher than the budget adopted last year. We have about $20 million in reserves.”
 But this happened thanks to the board’s planning and reductions made for the past years, Millican added.
 “A big reason for our success was that, during the enrollment and economic boom years, we stockpiled funds in our reserve account for the ‘rainy days’ that all school districts are now facing,” he said.
 Billings said that the 2010-2011 school year is going to be tough in Chula Vista.
 “Tax revenue is not growing, the legislature has not made structural changes to the State budget, and the worst times are ahead,” Billings said. “Next year is going to be much more difficult but regardless, we will do everything possible to support our students.

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Pablo Jaime Sainz