The San Marino Unified School District is predicting a $2.5 million budget deficit for the upcoming 2019-20 school year, according to a report that Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Julie Boucher presented at last week’s school board meeting.
Increases in salary due to contractual longevity steps, health benefits, and state-required increases in the amount of funding the district must pay into the California State Teacher Retirement System (STRS) and California Public Employee Retirement System (PERS), mean that the SMUSD will have to find a way to trim expenses in the upcoming school year.
The SMUSD has already made a $1.3 million transfer from its cash flow fund, a $300,000 transfer from its deferred maintenance fund and a $36,000 transfer from a post-employment benefits trust.
But that still leaves a gap of more than $856,000 to fill, which Boucher listed in her report as “TBD,” and could include staff reductions or other cost-saving measures.
According to Boucher, the district is projecting declining enrollment the next two school years. Recent pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten class sizes are smaller than San Marino High School’s graduating class of 2019. The State of California funds its public schools based on average daily attendance. Under California’s school funding process, school districts that have a large percentage of students who are classified as either Economically Disadvantaged, English Language Learners or Foster Care children receive significantly greater amounts of basically unrestricted money per student than does the SMUSD, leaving the district as one of the lowest funded districts in the State.
Last year, the District also paid $7 million for special education, more than 16% of its $43 million total budget. By law, the federal government is required to fund 40% of the cost of a district’s special education expenses, however, the federal government simply chooses to ignore this requirement, funding less than half that amount. According to Interim Superintendent Loren Kleinrock, “Basically, because of the State’s failure to provide adequate funding, for San Marino, the State has put this district and the few others like it into a recession.” If things don’t get better, the district will face a $2.5 – $3 million deficit in 2020-21.
The board also heard the second reading of a report on proposed changes to the district’s homework policies, which prompted the attention of three residents who spoke out on the matter. Susan Flanagan, a San Marino resident and retired Carver Elementary School second grade teacher, said she believed homework was important to students. The district’s Academics Advisory Committee has recommended reductions to homework throughout the district. Flanagan feels it is an important tool and has spoken out on tbe matter before. “The maximums are reasonable and consistent with other high-performing districts,” she said. “Homework reinforces basic skills. You cannot expect children to develop critical thinking skills without reinforcement through homework.”
Amy Yee, a mother of four students in local elementary schools, said she approves of homework and thought a 5th grader would not be prepared for the sixth grade without homework. She said that proposed time limits on homework “undermine the teacher’s judgment, especially if the teacher feels the need to use homework to expand on things,”
Larry Yang, the father of two elementary school students, said that a proposed limit of 20-30 minutes of homework per day was “too rigid” and felt more time was acceptable.
Following substantial discussion on the matter, the board agreed to revisit the subject on or after July 1, when new Superintendent Jeff Wilson is in office.
The board also heard the first reading on a proposed fee schedule for the district’s facilities and heard a progress report on the new Barth Athletics Center at Huntington Middle School.
Gerald Schober, the construction manager at the Barth site, said the project is under budget by $1.1 million with a grand opening set for Saturday, August 10.
The meeting marked the first for Grace Davis, San Marino High School’s new student representative to the school board. Davis, a senior, replaces Alyssa Escamilla, who served an unprecedented two-year stint before graduating in May.
