With a proposed 10 percent budget cut across all departments hovering over Sacramento, San Diego school administrators are preparing to tighten budgets throughout the district.
The potentially significant budget cuts may result in lost jobs and less spending on special programs as well as reductions in areas like special training for teachers, according to school officials.
State legislators have yet to decide how much money schools will get from the state this next fiscal year. However, administrators at the Ocean Beach Elementary Child Development Center, located at 4741 Santa Monica Ave., have started asking parents with children enrolled in the early childhood education programs to plan ahead in case the center closes, said Sylvia Gonzalez, program director.
“They [parents] need to make arrangements. I don’t want to say [the Child Development Center] is going to be open and then something happens,” Gonzalez said. “They should plan accordingly.”
The center was under threat last May because there was not enough money to keep it open into the next year fiscal year, officials said. The news galvanized parents and administrators to work together to keep the program open by increasing enrollment and through fund-raising efforts. Though Gonzalez said those efforts were successful, the looming budget cuts present a new set of problems.
With about 80 percent of the San Diego Unified School District’s budget going to pay teachers and staff, area superintendents such as Carol Barry are trying to save money where they can. Barry is the area superintendent for about 29 schools, located mostly in the Peninsula area.
“We have about a $79 million problem in San Diego Unified,” Barry said, “funding that we won’t get from the state.”
She said even though about $20 million in reserve funds are available, it’s not enough to cover a potential $79 million cut from the state. She said the district would likely make cuts in central office jobs and services with the bulk of the cuts in jobs.
Under the state’s education code, schools must notify teachers of possible reassignments for next fall by Saturday, March 1. Any teacher who may not have a job next fall must be notified by Saturday, March 15, according to Jack Brandais, SDUSD media relations officer.
As administrators work to keep student-teacher ratios constant in light of the possible cuts, Barry said she may have less money to spend on technology training for teachers and other programs such as wireless Internet access on campus.
“What we want to do is have the least impact we can have on children,” Barry said.
Although administrators would work to lessen the impact on kindergarten-through-12 schools, Barry said all programs would be affected by any cuts, including early childhood development programs like the Ocean Beach CDC, which works like a daycare for children ages 2 to 10.
For now, administrators have asked parents with children enrolled in the program to enroll their school-age children in the district’s “6 to 6” program, which provides a safe place for school-age children to stay and do homework while their parents are at work, according to officials.
While administrators prepare for the worst, school officials continue to remind parents and employees that neither state legislators nor the San Diego Unified School District’s Board of Education has decided how much money the district and its associated programs may end up receiving.
The board decides on any changes made to programs funded by the state, Barry said.
The SDUSD Board of Education meets twice a month, on the second and fourth Tuesdays, at the Eugene Brucker Education Center Auditorium, 4100 Normal St., from noon to 3 p.m.