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District set to make tough cuts for this school year
Must slash $2.6 million from next year's education budget
By Daniel Hindin
The Sunnyvale School District has begun the process of adopting next year's budget, but in stark contrast to the past few years, nobody expects this year's process to be pretty.
Several outside factors make it difficult for the district to maintain a uniform service level.
Administrators must attempt to balance the budget to make up for some major deficit spending last year that was mainly due to lower than expected revenues. These factors, combined with increases in salary, health insurance costs and energy costs for next year, combine to necessitate a $2.6 million slash in spending.
The district's governing board hosted a public forum on March 20 to allow parents, teachers and other members of the community to comment on the budget.
In past years, similar forums have been focused toward developing programs and improving service. This year is different.
After joking at the meeting that "I went to the library to look for a book on painless budget cuts, and the librarian told me to look in the fiction section," Superintendent Joseph Rudnicki said, "We won't be talking at all about expansion--there won't be any. This is about planning--planning for times we know will be more difficult than certainly the last five years."
The community members at the forum were instructed to look at their recommendations as goals for the next few years as opposed to mandates for immediate change.
But there weren't many people there to give recommendations. As Rudnicki gazed at the many empty seats, he said, "I'm kind of disappointed [at the turn out]. Actually, I'm really disappointed."
Aside from members of the school administration, just over 20 people attended the forum--most of them teachers. There were only three parents in attendance.
As those in attendance split into small groups to discuss priorities for improvements, the word "arts" was frequently mentioned. Class size reduction was another major theme.
However, history shows that arts programs are often the receive cuts.
At the close of the forum, Deputy Superintendent Ben Picard said, "The reality is that there are unlimited wants and limited resources. I think we've done a good job with the resources we have--although I think we don't have nearly enough."
Veterans of the education business are used to not getting everything they want. But this year, more than ever, the district must dissect each individual program to search for that fine line between wants and needs.
On March 2, 34 parents, teachers, school workers, principals, community members and administrative program managers convened for an all day budget session. As part of a process the district has never used before, all those present were asked to prioritize 25 separate programs by using a voting system.
"We know we have to cut, but we're trying to cut rationally," said Jessica Lee, a member of the board of education. "We've had to deal with large cuts before, but this time we're doing it smarter. We have a better strategy."
Participants heard presentations on each program at five different funding levels--88 percent through 104 percent. Each program had a dollar amount attached to it. As the costs of the highest ranked programs added up, one by one, the cumulative cost neared the district's budget limit. If they were to go exactly by the book, once the cumulative cost reached the budget limit, anything that had not received enough votes would forfeit all funding.
But even with most of the highest priorities listed at only 88 percent of current funding levels, several programs that fell below the imaginary line are programs the district can't do without.
For example, the Columbia Neighborhood Center fell just below the line, but the district has an obligation to make good on their agreement with the City of Sunnyvale to keep the center up and running. Summer school didn't make the cut, but administrators have no intention of canceling it. Attendance services were listed as one of the lowest priorities, but attendance records must be kept--state funding is based upon them.
"We're using [the ranking system] as a guide," Picard says, "but as we move forward, nothing is 100 percent possible. We're going to revise it. We've learned that certain things shouldn't have been put so high on the list--still, it's a pretty good first cut."
Budget recommendations will be presented to the board of education on April 26, and the final budget will be adopted in June. The board promises to divvy up the money as best they can, but come June, no program manager expects to feel like a winner.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
