News

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Board of Education adopts Fiscal Solvency Plan-Phase 2

After learning that state revenues to the Santa Barbara School Districts have declined by more than $3 million since April 28, when the board adopted its Fiscal Solvency Plan and made $3.1 million in cuts, the board was forced make at least another $1.5 million in cuts at its June 16, 2009 board meeting.

At that meeting, the board reviewed Fiscal Solvency Plan-Phase 2 for the 2009-10 school year and took action on two plans for additional budget reductions for the 2009-10 fiscal year, Plan A and Plan B (pdf). Plan A, which consists of $1,611,538 in cuts, includes items that would need to be negotiated with the Santa Barbara Teachers Association in order to be implemented. Plan B, which consists of $1,409,162 in cuts, omits those negotiable items and replaces them with items that could be implemented immediately. Both plans reflect a $10,000 personal donation from Superintendent Brian Sarvis to the districts’ general fund.

“The Santa Barbara School Board has struggled this year to implement the deep cuts that we have been burdened with due to the state's current fiscal crisis. Board members are trying to minimize the effects on our students and staff, but the situation is so dire that we know that the level of service our students receive will suffer,” stated Board President Kate Parker.

Mrs. Parker continued, “We sincerely hope that our Plan A cuts from our June 16th meeting can be successfully negotiated with the Santa Barbara Teachers Association in order to mitigate increases in K-3 class sizes and save teaching positions. In addition, we highly appreciate the Superintendent's decision to donate 5 percent of his salary to the district for 2009-2010. All board members plan to donate over 8 percent from their total annual stipend, too. We strongly feel that it's important for our community to see all members of the Santa Barbara School Districts pull together during this very difficult time. We do have Plan B in place in case Plan A cannot be negotiated, however, and we pledge to keep working over the summer to come up with more alternative budget cuts to reduce the impact of this financial emergency on our school sites.”

The board’s direction provides staff with the information needed to complete work on a budget that will be adopted at the board’s June 23 meeting.

With Tuesday’s board action, the districts have now cut over $8 million over the past two years. A portion of the federal stimulus dollars have been used to partially restore reserves that would have been depleted due to loss of state revenue.

The Santa Barbara Elementary and High School Districts are the largest school districts in Santa Barbara County serving approximately 16,000 students and employing approximately 2,500 certificated and classified staff.