Mary Hart, Associate Superintendent of Business for County Education, has some grim news for the Santa Cruz City School District. Despite teacher concessions and other steps taken to overcome the deficit, it is unlikely that local schools will be able to rehire teachers or restore abandoned programs. The district is facing a $7 million budget shortfall over the next three years
Mary Hart, Associate Superintendent of Business for County Education, has some grim news for the Santa Cruz City School District. Despite teacher concessions and other steps taken to overcome the deficit, it is unlikely that local schools will be able to rehire teachers or restore abandoned programs. The district is facing a $7 million budget shortfall over the next three years.
The problem, according to Hart, is that the school board is not doing enough to maintain a 3 percent reserve fund as required by state law. Failure to maintain the reserve would result in “negative certification,” meaning that a state fiscal adviser could be appointed to the board to monitor every expenditure made.
Board members, led by President Rachel Dewey Thorsett, were furious at Hart’s suggestion that savings be directed to the reserve fund, rather than to teacher salaries and programs. She said that the very suggestion that money just be put into a reserve fund removes the staff’s motivation to accept furloughs. The timing of Hart’s announcement was especially volatile because the School Board is now in the middle of negotiations with the teachers’ union over a nine-day furlough for next year.
“I don’t make the laws,” replied Hart. Read more at the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
