Teachers’ union supports most of school budget plan
The school officials need to do their homework before they even consider closing schools for a week to offset a looming $3.5 million deficit.
That’s the message delivered by Harry Keilly, president of the Santa Monica-Malibu Classroom Teachers Association, to the school board last week. The union represents about 750 teachers in the district.
He urged the school board to reconsider a proposal by Superintendent John Deasy that would close school for 10 days. The $3.2 million saved by not paying its employees could be used to close a $3.5 million budget gap and prevent “draconian” cuts, Deasy has said.
“We think our members are underpaid already and that this wouldn’t be the best solution at this time,” Keilly said.
Keilly argues that teachers shouldn’t go without pay when school officials can find money in the budget if they cut in certain areas.
He said the school district should first tap into its reserve fund. Under state law, school districts and municipalities must set aside a certain percentage of their general fund for emergency situations and the current budget deficit is certainly one of those situations.
Gov. Gray Davis has said school districts should be allowed to use those funds to get through the mid-year budget cuts, which for Santa Monica has meant a loss of $3.5 million in state funding that must be reconciled by the end of the school year on June 30.
Keilly wants the district to use that money, which comes to $2.8 million, toward closing the budget gap. That would decrease, if not eliminate, the need to close schools, he said.
4E9,“It’s there for a rainy day, and it’s pouring out right now,” he said. “So it’s time to dip into that reserve.”
Deasy has argued the reserve is there for natural disasters, and in earthquake-prone California there is a need to keep the money.
Other than the reserve, the union endorsed much of Deasy’s budget plan. Keilly said the district should eliminate 10 administrators for a savings of $1 million, lower spending on special education by 10 percent to retain $1 million, freeze all new spending, and offer early retirement to all eligible employees this spring.
He also pointed to a $7.4 million spot in the school district’s budget earmarked for “Other Operating Expenses.” Keilly and Deasy agree that account can be cut by 10 percent or more.
Keilly also pledged the support of the teachers’ union to put a new parcel tax measure before voters in a June 3 special election. He also said the union would help the district and the city lobby elected officials to return education funding.
“We know if we are to get through this we have to work together,” Keilly said. “And we have to work at the state level. The proposed cuts the governor is making would be devastating to our schools and our kids.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 15, 2003. Read the original PDF.