November 19, 2004

ESUHSD administrators seek community feedback on budget crisis

By Dan Reyes
Staff Writer

Concerned parents, teachers and students gathered at the Silver Creek High School gymnasium to try and think of ways to overcome their projected $6 million dollar deficit and stave off what would surely be the district’s worst-case scenario.

Jack Mahrt and Art Darin of the East Side Union High School District take questions from the audience at Silver Creek High School about the state of the district’s budget.

“Exactly how close are we to being taken over the by state?” asked one concerned parent. “That depends,” said Jack Mahrt, chief financial officer for the East Side Union High School District (ESUHSD). “If we don’t have a plan that the county office thinks will work, then the county office will step in.”

According to Mahrt, only the county can request that the state step in and take over administration of the school district. But Mahrt is setting up weekly meetings with the county to help ensure that the district’s plan has the best possible chance of being approved. But if not approved, the consequences would be dramatic.

“If the state takes over,” said Mahrt, “all contracts would be null and void. In Oakland, when the state stepped in, they rolled back the salaries by 6 percent. And how long they would stay would be up to the state.”

The meeting at Silver Creek was one of four budget public forums held at various schools to enlist the public’s help in forming ideas to raise revenue and cut costs without impacting the quality of student’s education. It’s critical since ESUHSD’s Measure K parcel tax did not garner the required 66.6 percent vote in the Nov. 2 election, and the district will not be seeing $5.6 million per year in the form of new parcel tax revenues.

Mahrt and Art Darin, the district’s chief academic officer (who was also named Silver Creek interim principal) presented a list of proposed cuts, generated by staff at previous budget meetings, to solicit feedback from the community. They are not ranked in any particular order. The list included items such as:

- Eliminate athletics
- Close one school and disperse students throughout the district
- Close district office and move essential personnel to school sites
- Close the day care center
- Decrease the superintendent’s salary
- Cut all employees salaries
- Charge students who need to make up a failed class in either in summer school or adult education
- Require students to buy or rent their own textbooks
- Eliminate career services and career techs
- Find alternative uses for schools when they are not in session
- Eliminate librarians
- Charge employees for all off-campus phone calls
- Assign students to clean up duty instead of detention and cut back on custodians
- Allow employees to opt out of the health benefit plan
- Eliminate counselors
- Eliminate all classroom computers
- Stop all SARB and truancy programs
- Cut school by one hour daily to save energy
- Hire local teachers instead of traveling abroad
- Partner with private companies
- Remove all classified management
- Offer incentive for retirees
- Turn off pool heaters
- Mandate a recycle program
- Shut off all computers at 5:30 p.m.
- Give physical education credit to those who play sports
- Cut technology technicians and contract out for services
- Eliminate special ed resource teachers

Mahrt emphasized that no decisions had been made and that all options were still on the table. A complete list of proposals can be found at the district’s Web site.

Jack Mahrt, chief financial officer of the East Side Union High School District, talks with concerned community members at a public form at Silver Creek High School to discuss the district’s budget problems.

“Anything that impacts the kids should be the last thing to be cut,” said Lou Kvitek, president of the Silver Creek Valley Service Organization. “In Silicon Valley, companies take bold moves at times like these. The school district should follow their example. We should see the superintendent and all of you guys taking pay cuts. The board of trustees should take pay cuts as of today.”

The recommendations made at the community forums will be taken up and discussed by the district’s budget team.

The budget team first met on Nov. 10 and will continue to meet until Feb. 1 when they will provide the superintendent with their recommendations. None of the team’s recommendations are binding.

The budget team’s next meeting is Wednesday, Dec. 1, and the next school board meeting is Thursday, Dec. 2 at 6 p.m. A complete list of the budget team’s meeting times and recent meeting agendas can be downloaded from the ESUHSD Web site, http://www.esuhsd.org.