Tehachapi News

Facing cuts, school board votes to spend developer money

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A series of unanimous votes from all seven school board trustees during the June 2 district board meeting resulted in some large expenditures, and the reorganization of old debts and unused funding.

Before the burgeoning state budget crisis freezes public education funding, nearly a dozen Tompkins Elementary school classrooms will get new air conditioning units this summer, at a cost of $68,000.

“It is my understanding that the new units will conserve energy,” said Julie Auvil, the district’s Chief Administrator of Business Services, after audience members questioned the expenditure.

The money comes from developer fees that could be reclaimed if the district doesn’t spend it as planned. Developer fees are allocated specifically for deferred maintenance, according Auvil.

After the state excised $1.6 million from Tehachapi’s education budget in February, SBX3-4 was enacted by the Legislature to allow school districts flexibility with regards to previously allocated funding.

“It sounds like a really cool car, but it’s really not,” Auvil said.

By unanimous vote, a total of $949,100 was transferred to the district’s general fund from restricted/categorical programs, such as arts, music, library materials, GATE, career technical education and various other grant-funded programs.

“They’ve robbed Peter to pay Paul,” trustee Patty Snyder said of the state’s effort to ease the education cuts, that threaten grow deeper every day.

The unused, transferred money will still be tracked by the school sites from which they originated, Auvil said, but warned the trustees against hastily re-allocating the “one-time funding.”

“It’s too soon,” Auvil said to an audience member’s suggestion that the funds be used to bring back teachers who were laid off in May. “We don’t know the final scenario. There’s another round of cuts every time the Legislature sneezes.”

“It’s a losing proposition no matter what you do,” said Trustee Holly Hart. “Some school sites feel like we’re stealing their money. There’s absolutely no way that this particular proposal is a winning situation. It changes the rules in the middle of the game.”

While the district received final judicial approval to cut 14.34 teachers, Tehachapi High School is now facing a shortage of Math and Science teachers. With an estimated 418 freshman expected to begin classes in the fall, Principal Cary Johnson said those particular classes face a potential student to teacher ratio of 51:1.

“I can say with confidence that we really tried to work it out,” Johnson said of his counseling staff’s efforts to re-organize the complicated teaching schedules which must be completed by the end of June.

As a result, all seven trustees voted to allow the hiring of credentialed teachers from outside the district, for those classes only — in spite of recent layoffs and an informal “hiring freeze.”

Efforts to bring back some, or possibly all of the teachers who were laid off are currently being explored through potential costs savings of an early retirement program, Auvil said.

One Catch-22 of a decreasing budget, means that the percentage of personnel costs increases, she said.

The board unanimously approved next year’s contract for the School Resource Officer Stacy Arebalo, at a cost of $37,667, vowing that campus safety won’t be compromised by budget cuts.

Principal Johnson said he couldn’t imagine the campus functioning smoothly without a resource officer.

Arebalo has been very helpful with safety issues at all of the local campuses, Johnson said.

“Officer Arebalo is a perfect fit for an SRO. He’s got the perfect temperament. He should be a teacher if not an SRO,” Johnson said. “Unfortunately it comes down to a choice between a teacher and him. He keeps all of our campuses safe.”

Each of the trustees and the superintendent had something positive to contribute about the value of the school resource officer.

In other school board business:

• Two escrow accounts were approved for the defeasance of two certificates of participation in school improvement bonds originally issued in the 1990s. The interest earned on developers fees will pay off certificate balances in almost half the time at a significant cash flow savings to the district. The original bond funds were used for improvements at the high school and Tompkins elementary school.

• Calling it “The cost of doing business,” a 5-2 vote approved payment of $3,020 in legal fees for Superintendent Swanson in conjunction with the recent Grand Jury investigation. Trustees Judy Walsh and Jackie Wood voted no.

• The Arts, Science and Technology committee we given permission to continue clean-up of the old Jacobsen agriculture facility and to begin the implementation of a pumpkin growing project. The pumpkins will sold during a Fall Harvest Faire, as part of efforts to make the project self-sustaining.

• The adoption of board policies was postponed for legal clarification.

• Adult Education curriculum for the 09/10 school year was approved.

• Approval of SARC report cards for 07/08 school year; published during 2008/2009 are no available on the district Web site.