By Torre Peña
The Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District Board of Trustees and superintendent let out a collective sigh of relief when the County Board of Supervisors on March 25 approved staffing increases for the finance agency in the county controller's office.
School district officials are hoping more staff will prevent the kind of glitch that last November led the controller's office to announce a $1.2 million shortfall.
Dependent on local taxes, the district's board relies on the county controller's office for its budget information. The November announcement caused panic in the district.
The news came while the board met in a closed session to ratify teacher employment contracts. The board suspended financial matters until the mistake was ironed out. When the dust settled, the local district was still about $400,000 short, and board members eyed the County Office of Education with distrust.
The high school district is one of four Basic Aid districts in the county that were mistakenly allotted an extra $1.2 million. When the county took back the money, it was as if the districts had been hit with a one-two punch, said Supervisor Joe Simitian. Basic Aid districts are funded by local taxes on assessed property value that may fluctuate.
Taming the bureaucratic beast that is county government, Simitian rapidly initiated staffing changes, presenting the proposal to the County Board of Supervisors for approval.
"One of our responsibilities is to give the districts the information they need," Simitian said.
Simitian started meeting with the board and Superintendent Tod Likins to discuss the issue a week before he was elected District 1 supervisor in November. Likins and the board said they were impressed by the swift response from Simitian.
"He has listened to our concerns and moved forward with speed and diligence," Likins said.
Staffing increases in the finance agency, where November's mix-up originated, more than doubled the number of employees, from the equivalent of 3.5 full-time positions to 7.5, raising the staffing level to that in counties of similar size.
In addition to understaffing, a probable cause of the miscalculation in November was the loss of an employee with knowledge of technical operations, Simitian explained. Likins suggested that it's important to get people in there who know what they're doing and that they have the technology to back them up.
Simitian said the next challenge is to update the agency's technology, which is "for all intents and purposes obsolete."
Although Simitian was the driving force behind the staffing adjustments, the County Board of Supervisors rallied around the changes, approving them unanimously on March 25. "Come July 1 there will be no excuses to give the districts," Simitian said.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, April 2, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.