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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
FOLLOWING FEBRUARY 3, 2004 MEETING
OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION

 
The following questions were submitted by e-mail following the February 3rd meeting of the Board of Education. If you have additional questions, please send them to schools@livermore.k12.ca.us and we'll try to answer them and add them to the list. We reserve the right to edit questions for brevity.
 

1. QUESTION: We need to make $2.5 million in cuts this year, $6.7 million the next, and $10.5 million the following year. It just gets worse and worse each year. Why bother to make the cuts?

ANSWER: Your numbers are based on the assumption that the Board of Education makes no budget cuts for 2004-2005 and everything else stays the same: expenditures, salary schedule, health benefit costs, class sizes, no school closure, no parcel tax, and all state requirements remain as they are. When the Board makes $2.5 million in on-going cuts for 2004-2005, the cut reduces the shortfall in each subsequent year as well. In addition, the total we must hold in reserve is also reduced in future years because the reserve required is based on expenditures. The impact of cuts is thus magnified. When combined with the positive effects of negotiated savings with our employee organizations, a successful parcel tax, and enthusiastic funding raising by the Livermore Valley Educational Foundation, what appears overwhelming at the start becomes more doable.

A district that is taken over by the state loses the opportunity to control its own fate. The state assigns a trustee with absolute authority whose only interest is in restoring the District to financial health. As Oakland is learning, the state trustee has absolute authority to make budget cuts, close schools, increase class size or take any other action believed to be in the district's best financial interest.

2. QUESTION: Will the Board keep the class size reduction program?

ANSWER: The Superintendent has recommended that the class size reduction program be retained only in first grade. If her recommendation is approved, class sizes in grade K, 2, and 3 would return to the level before class size reduction was implemented: 30 students per teacher.

The Board has not yet taken action on the Superintendent's recommendation. They are still considering their alternatives as well as the input they are receiving from community members and staff. However, if they do not approve the Superintendent's recommendation, the Fiscal Advisor requires that the Board make cuts in other programs in order to reach the $2.5 million level.
 

3. QUESTION: If Rancho does not close, will students from other schools attend Rancho.

ANSWER: Probably. But how many will depend on which schools are closed and whether or not Rancho is the appropriate school for those students to attend.
 

4. QUESTION: If schools are closed, when would the closure take effect?

ANSWER: Students would complete the present school year at their current schools. The closures would take effect for the 2004-2005 school year and the students would attend their new schools beginning in September.
 

5. QUESTION: If the District is in financial crisis, why is the District spending money building at Portola, Smith, Seco and elsewhere?

ANSWER: The money the District uses to build or modernize facilities comes from funds given the District for that purpose and that purpose alone. By state law, these dollars cannot be diverted to meet our shortfall in the General Fund.
 

6. QUESTION: Has the district considered having one principal manage two elementary schools?

ANSWER: Yes. However, it is not feasible because of the size of our elementary schools and the large number of duties the Principal is expected to perform.
 

7. QUESTION: If Rancho (or any school, for that matter) were to close, would parents have a choice as to where their students would be placed?

ANSWER: The TRANSITION PLAN presented to the Board at the February 3 meeting addresses this question. Please click on the link provided to download the plan in PDF format. If you have further questions, please contact Student Services Director Patrick Fitzpatrick at 606-3207 or pfitzpatrick@livermore.k12.ca.us.
 

8. QUESTION: Why are we just cutting the elementary schools? Why not the secondary schools as well?

ANSWER: Over the last three years, all levels including the District level have suffered their share of cuts. Download our History of Budget Reductions document to see the cuts that have been made to date and our Potential Cost Savings Items to see all the programs being considered for reduction in 2004-2005. This year the Board is considering cutting the high school athletics program by 50%, shifting the money provided for extra classes at the middle school level to special funds, and increasing the secondary student-teacher ratio. No decisions have yet been made. The Board is scheduled to vote on these items on February 17th.
 

9. QUESTION: For the schools that close, will the District sell or lease the property to make money for the district?

ANSWER: This is a decision the Board of Education is yet to make.
 

10. QUESTION: Other districts don't have the steep health care cost increases. Why doesn't the District look into better plans?

ANSWER: All public school districts are facing the same steep increases in the cost of health care. Some districts have successfully negotiated cost containment measures with their employee organizations. The District plans to raise the issue of cost containment in negotiations with employee organizations this year.
 

11. QUESTION: Could City help fund our schools? Schools are important to everyone in this town.

ANSWER: They already do. The City presently spends over a million dollars each year to pay for our crossing guards, school resource officers from the Police Department, and partially fund the cost of the community liaison position. The City expects to have its own budget reduced in the coming year as a result of the state fiscal crisis.
 

12. QUESTION: Why don't you cut administrators and management first?

ANSWER: The Board of Education did exactly that. The Board reduced our management staff from 55 to 48 during the last three years, with most of those cuts coming at the District level. The Fiscal Advisor has warned the Board of Education that it may have cut management too deeply in an effort to protect the classroom and he is concerned that there might not be sufficient managers to administer the District's $86,000,000 budget and manage the approximately 2,000 staff receiving paychecks each month. .
 

13. QUESTION: The federal No-Child-Left-Behind legislation gives parents the right to move their children from low performing schools to higher performing schools. How do we do that?

ANSWER: Based on the standards in this federal law, our District has no low performing schools.

Nevertheless, the Board of Education has had a long-standing policy permitting parents to transfer their students to schools other than their neighborhood school if space is available at the receiving school. More information on this process is available in the District's TRANSITION PLAN.
 

14. QUESTION: Isn't the Superintendent's salary too high?

ANSWER: The current Superintendent's salary is among the lower salaries received by Superintendents for districts of similar size. In addition, the Superintendent and Deputy Superintendent have each voluntarily donated 3% of their annual salary back to the District this year.
 

15. QUESTION: The budget shortfall works out to $180 a student. Why not just charge everyone $180 for each student?

ANSWER: The laws of the state of California guarantee students a free education in the public schools. It is simply illegal for the District to charge parents to send their children to school.

It is possible for parents to donate voluntarily to the Livermore Valley Education Foundation in any amount. Last year, the Foundation's "Dollar-A-Day" program asked parents to donate $180 and raised $370,000 as a result which was donated to the District. Such donations are gratefully accepted.
 

16. QUESTION: Why doesn't the School Board fix the funding inequity problem. It is not right that Pleasanton and Dublin get so much more money per student from the State.

ANSWER: The issue of equalizing the amount of money the State gives per student to school districts is not something over which the Board of Education has any control. The problem was created in Sacramento and needs to be solved at that level. If you want to be a part of the solution, please join Livermore parents with a similar interest by visiting their web site at http://www.lleg.org.
 

17. QUESTION: Why can't you just freeze salaries and save money that way?

ANSWER: By law, employee salaries are subject to the collective bargaining process. The Board of Education has no authority to freeze employee salaries without negotiating with employee organizations.
 

18. QUESTION: If the Governor's bond measure is passed in March, how much money will our district receive? Will it be enough to prevent schools from being closed and keep class size reduction?.

ANSWER: We don't yet know for sure. The details of how the money will be allocated among school districts by the State and what restrictions will be placed on those funds have not yet been announced.

There will be additional questions and answers post in the near future. If you have a question, please send it to us at schools@livermore.k12.ca.us