LAKE COUNTY — In the face of more than $5 million in revenue reductions, school districts around the county were recently forced to make drastic cuts in staff and services for the upcoming 2010-11 academic year. According to Dave Geck, Lake County superintendent of schools, 39 teaching positions, 42 classified support staff positions and eight administrator or counseling positions have been projected for elimination across the county for the 2010 school year.
Geck said since staff comprises more than 80 percent of districts” budgets the majority of cuts involved reducing staff. He said that the projected staff reductions will not be finalized until May.
According to Geck, occasionally in the past, some reductions were later rescinded in the summer when other funds or reductions were used to bridge the loss of state funding. He said this year, superintendents and school board members are very pessimistic about being able to create a “summer miracle” that would allow for the reinstatement of eliminated positions.
“I am also pessimistic. Our schools have had to endure three straight years of reduced funding and they have exhausted all their other options,” Geck said. “The fact is that California”s budget is still in terrible shape and in spite of opinion polls that show the public clearly wants public education protected, the Governor and the legislature have avoided fixing the systemic problems with the budget. Instead they have chosen to mortgage the future and look to cut education as a way to balance the budget. The legislature is currently working on the 2010-2011 budget. I am not hopeful that they will rollback the Governor”s call to again make devastating cuts to education budgets.”
Geck said that locally proposed cuts to education are compounded by an ongoing decline in school enrollment. He said in the past three years public schools in Lake County have lost 677 students while private schools have lost 113. Geck attributes this decline in enrollment to a rise in unemployment.
“Double digit unemployment, that has now reached over 19 percent, is one of the prime reasons for the decline in enrollment,” Geck said. “Families are unable to stay in our county when stable jobs are not available. Since schools are funded by how many students attend school, declining enrollment created a $3.5 million funding loss for our school budgets over the past three years.”
Geck also noted that the Governor recently signed legislation that continues the state”s practice of deferring the revenue payments to schools in order to help the state avoid having to borrow money to pay its obligations. He said this means, in many cases, that school districts will be forced to borrow money to cover payroll and other obligations. “This is like having your employer say ?I”m short on cash this month and I will pay you later in the year.” Thus forcing you to use your own credit card to buy food and pay your bills,” Geck said. “When you add to these challenges, the Governor”s devastating cuts of over $432 per student, the result is a crisis for our schools.”
According to Geck, area districts made ever effort to make cuts as far from the classroom as possible. He said school boards voted to make reductions in bus routes, after school support programs, middle school athletic programs, library hours, elementary school music programs, counseling programs, administrative staff and support staff. He said the elimination of academic enrichment programs such as GATE and AVID also resulted.
“School districts have also been forced to make the tough decisions to reduce teaching staff. These reductions will increase class sizes,” Geck said. “In the primary grades, class sizes will climb from 20 up to 24 and in some cases higher.”
Geck said there are ways the community can help. “As superintendents we have one voice. Please join us in letting your state legislator know how important education is to our future,” he said. “As someone once said, ?You can”t light a match twice.” These are lost opportunities to provide the high quality education our children deserve and our future demands.”
Geck said that area teachers and support staff are working as hard as they can but they can”t be expected to be successful if they are not provided with the resources they need. “Every year the needs of our students become more diverse and challenging and every year we are asked to strip away more and more of the resources needed in our schools,” he said. “Please join the educators in our county in demanding that our state legislators put a halt to their assault on education ? the education our children need and deserve.”
Letters to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger may be sent to State Capitol, Sacramento, CA 95814. Letter may be sent via fax to (916) 445-4633.
Contact South County reporter Denise Rockenstein at drockenstein@clearlakeobserver.com or call her directly at 994-6444, ext. 11.
