By Tim Persyn
The Saratoga Union School District's board of trustees voted last week to approve Superintendent Mary Gardner's plan for the allocation of $99,461 in one-time money from the state for instructional materials and technology.
The district is restricted to spending the money, which came from the state budget for 1995-1996, on one-time expenses in areas such as instructional materials, deferred maintenance and educational technology.
In deciding how to allocate the money, Gardner met with various members of the district community, including business manager Ellen Tipton, school principals, and Paul Tipton, maintenance operations director for the district.
The money will be divided as follows: $20,000 for instructional materials, to be spent by the district; $20,000 for educational technology; and $59,461 to be split between the district's four schools, to be spent on instructional materials, educational technology or furniture.
Argonaut Elementary will receive $16, 255; Foothill Elementary will receive $12, 595; Saratoga Elementary will receive $9,713, and Redwood Middle School will receive $20,893. The money was divided according to each school's average daily attendance.
Tipton explained the rationale behind the division of the funds among the schools rather than for deferred maintenance, something the board had previously considered.
"The needs of deferred maintenance are so great--one project might cost $100,000--that a small amount wouldn't help," Tipton said. "We couldn't allocate all the money to deferred maintenance, so we decided to cover those costs in another way.
"We decided to do something for the kids--we decided to give money to the schools that they can spend within guidelines," Tipton added.
The district's expenditure for instructional materials will cover the purchase of textbooks, while the money allocated for educational technology will go toward completing its network hookup.
Gardner said each school's site council of teachers, parents and staff members will decide how to spend the school's allocation.
At the Feb. 13 board meeting, board member Stephanie Petrossi voiced objections to the way the district planned to divide the money. She said she preferred that all the allocated money be spent on the science lab at Redwood School. "All the kids in the district go to Redwood, and the science lab is way behind," Petrossi said.
Board President Cindy Ruby disagreed with Petrossi, arguing that each school should get some of the money.
"This is a bonus. Everyone should feel it," Ruby said.
"My concern is that all the schools have been strapped in the purchasing of instructional materials," Gardner said. "Each school also needs some money to finish up the technology direction we've been on, and some schools have furniture needs."
Louise Levy, Foothill principal, said she has discussed with Foothill's school site council how to spend their share of the allocation.
"We have two areas that would be our highest priority. We would like to spend the majority on technology, and some on instructional materials like maps and globes," Levy said.
Tipton supported the idea of each school getting a share of the money.
"Schools haven't had much discretionary money. They really haven't had enough in the past four or five years to really get anything updated, like maps," she said. "In the past, they've had to use discretionary money to cover items like glue and pencils."
Gardner supported the idea of schools receiving discretionary income. "I don't want to dictate to schools how to use the money," she said.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, March 13, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved