State Deficit Grows $6.5 Billion, Spurs District to Revise Recent Staffing Approvals

What a difference two weeks can make.

On May 8, San Ramon Valley Unified School District Superintendent Steve Enoch presented several staffing needs to the board of education that . Some of those needs, which totaled nearly $1 million, included teachers on special assignments (TSAs), filling business and maintenance services position, and increasing per pupil tech support at the elementary and middle schools.

This was back when the state's deficit was only $9.2 billion.

Four days after this approval, on May 12, California Governor Jerry Brown announced a revised deficit number, jumping from $9.2 billion to $15.7 billion.

In response to the $6.5 billion deficit balloon, Enoch came back with a revision to those staffing needs, for Tuesday's SRVUSD board of education meeting.

"We knew going in, even with the action by the board (on May 8), there was an element of risk," Enoch said. "(The new deficit amount) solidified that risk."

The proposal and its revisions

In light of the news of a much larger deficient, Enoch's revised recommendations to the May 8 staffing needs cut the 2012-13 budgetary impact of the positions by two thirds. The original plan was to invest $994,000 for the new positions but that has been cut to about $360,000.

The May 8 proposal included hiring four half-time TSAs, an energy manager, a night custodian supervisor, a purchasing director, as well as splitting the current assistant superintendent of business and facilities services, held by Gary Black, into two jobs -- a CBO/controller's position to take over business and financial duties and an operations and facilities position. Black would retain the latter.

That proposal also increased tech support at the elementary and middle school levels to $12 per pupil, up from $5 and $6.24 respectively.

Tuesday's revision puts the night custodian supervisor and the purchasing director on the back burner, and has existing staff absorbing the energy manager's duties. The TSAs decreased from four half-time hires to two. Tech support was also revised, going from the approved increase of $12 per pupil, to $10.

The only part that remains unchanged is splitting Black's job into two to create a CBO position and a facilities and maintenance position.

How does the deep deficit affect SRVUSD?

Despite the increase in the state's deficit, it appears that the public school funding outlook will stay the same.

There are two scenarios in play and both are based on the outcome of Brown's November tax initiative measure.

This initiative, in short, would raise the sales tax, as well as increase the income tax on those who make $250,000 or more. If the initiative passes, funding to public schools will remain flat, meaning no increases and no decreases, Black told the board.

But if it fails, public schools would have to absorb $5.5 billion in "trigger" cuts. These cuts have remained unchanged despite the sizable increase in the state's deficit. But, Black said, nothing is certain moving forward.

Presuming the new deficit won't increase these "trigger" cuts, and they will stay at $5.5 billion, its impact to the district is about $13 million, or about $441 per pupil.

"We thought we would get hit with a much larger cut," Enoch said.

The $6.5 billion added to the deficit, as of now, hasn't changed the outlook of school funding, so why does staff think it needs to revise the positions now?

Community Relations Director Terry Koehne said that staff feels it can absorb the cost of these positions, even with the $13 million in "trigger" cuts. But the news coming from Sacramento about the increased deficit, Koehne said Enoch felt it was prudent to pull back on some of the positions.

"We'll see what happens in November," he said. "However, the need does not go away, it only grows as we continue to grow."

Disagreement on the board

But not all members of the board saw eye to eye on these revisions. Particularly splitting the assistant superintendent position.

Board of Education President Greg Marvel originally voted in favor of this split on May 8. On Tuesday, he expressed a different feeling.

"I'm not in favor of splitting that position yet," Marvel told the board. "If the bond passes on November, I think at that point it would be impossible to handle (as one) job. I think that a better course of action is to rethink using available positions. Are you using every position to their fullest potential? Think outside the box."

Black currently handles not only facilities and maintenance for the entire district, but also all business and financial aspects. Enoch and the board (including Marvel) agreed on May 8 that the scope of Black's job was growing too large for one person. This large scope could create issues or errors in financing and end up costing the district more in the long run, several board members expressed on May 8, including Marvel, and last Tuesday.

"Gary has too much to focus on," board member Paul Gardner said. "I'm not willing to take the risk (of not splitting the positions). I'm sorry, I have to say, the biggest issue is if we don't get more fire power on the financial side, we could be in a very tough position."

Board vice president also disagreed with Marvel.

"This isn't realistic, it's idealistic," Mintz said. "We can't just shift some people around. We are about to replace our superintendent. This is not the right time to load up (additional duties) on our staff."

Marvel agreed that staff was spread thin but wasn't swayed in his original thought.

"We are filling an empty position that needs to be filled," Gardner said, vehemently.

Marvel also disagreed with decreasing the proposed tech support funding from the original $12 per pupil proposed on May 8 to $10.

"I'm not in favor of decreasing (to $10 per pupil) after staff recommended an increase of ($12 per pupil)," he said. "If we say it is core to the district, if staff recommended $12 and thought that was the right amount, what we're saying now is that we are going to provide less services. If we are going to do it, do it right."

The board wasn't unanimous on every revision recommended on Tuesday. The vote was broken up into three. The board unanimously voted for reducing the four halftime TSAs to two. Yet it voted 3-2 in favor of splitting Black's current position and the same to revising tech support at the elementary and middle school level from the originally proposed $12 per pupil to $10.

Board member Denise Jennison and Marvel were the "nays" on that vote.

Koehne said the needs removed or scaled back from the May 8 proposal are not going away and that they will be reassessed in the future.