Schools

LCUSD Could Cut 15 Teachers

As the district grapples with how to plug the budget deficit, teachers, Elementary Spanish and counseling services top proposed cuts.

La Cañada Unified School District may cut 15 teachers, officials said Tuesday, noting declining enrollment and less money from the cash-strapped state.

Of those 15 positions, six are hopeful retirements and nine are temporary teachers, whose contracts are not automatically promised to them, said Stephen Hodgson, business consultant for LCUSD. 

Additional losses to the district could include the elementary Spanish program and a number of counseling services across the school sites. There’s also a strong possibility that class sizes, already averaging 35 students per teacher in grades nine through 12, could inflate a bit more. And while kindergarten to third grade averages about 22 students per teacher, the budget shortfall could increase that to 30 to 1. 

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While district officials recommended cutting the 15 positions, the board must approve those cuts, and the overall budget, at its March 9 meeting. During Tuesday's meeting,  no less than five times did board members plead for public participation at Wednesday’s town hall meeting.

The district, and the task force it assembled from the La Cañada Educational Foundation, will host an informational meeting at 6 p.m. to discuss the financial crisis and potential solutions.

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Led by Superintendent Jim Stratton, board member Scott Tracy and Foundation president Valerie Aenlle-Rocha, the meeting in La Cañada High School’s auditorium will outline how the district came to be in such a situation. Panelists will take questions from the public, as well as point out the cuts the district has already put into place.

“I really hope every member of the community is there,’’ board member Susan Boyd said Tuesday. Boyd noted that LCUSD's budget problem affects the entire community, not just parents of kids who attend the schools, as property values are intimately tied to those school: when education quality plummets, so do housing values.

“It’s just so important that we raise the funds we need so that we don’t have to cut programs,’’ Boyd added.

The Foundation has asked for $2,500 donations per La Cañada family, to try to close the gap created by declining enrollment and a drop in per-student monies from the state.

Hodgson outlined various fiscal scenarios for the district, the worst case scenario including some $600 less per student from the state. Take that money plus a projected 500 fewer students for the 2013-14 school year, at a loss of roughly $5,000 per student (money the state funds per pupil) and there's a loss of nearly $3 million. Both Stratton and Hodgson noted that the district in making its projections, is juggling multiple scenarios because there are so many unknowns on the state level.

For instance, Hodgson explained, Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed a tax extension measure be on the ballot for a special election in June. Brown has said he wants K-12 spared from additional cuts, and is proposing $12.5 billion in expenditure reductions to virtually all other state programs, with another $12 billion coming in from the temporary taxes. If that measure makes it on the ballot and passes, schools throughout the state will be in a very different fiscal spot than if it either fails or fails to make it on the ballot. 

“There are a lot of variables,’’ Stratton said, intimating the district’s frustration with not knowing how bad the situation could end up being. 


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