School District Expects Pink Slips and Program Cuts Even If $195 Tax Passes

• School Year to End Five Days Earlier Than Scheduled

BY SUZANNE GULDIMANN

Sixty-one teachers, nurses and counselors will be receiving pink slips from the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District on March 15. An additional 22 have agreed to take early retirement, bringing the number to 83 instead of the 92 authorized at last month’s board of education meeting.
“This will be a sacrifice made by families for the greater good,” boardmember Oscar de la Torre said at the March 4 board meeting where the cost-saving plan was finalized. “A lot of people, real human beings, this will have a real impact on their lives.” He added that teachers will be asked to do “more with less.”
Names have not yet been released, but all 10 elementary school music teachers are expected to be on the list, despite numerous passionate pleas from parents who called the move “outrageous,” and “heartbreaking.”
One speaker questioned why music was targeted: “You did not decimate any other areas,” she said. “Music is a language that needs to be learned early,” another speaker said. “The music department is a huge part of what makes the district stand out,” said another.
The board was also presented with 212 letters—many from representatives of Los Angeles' music and arts organizations, including the Los Angeles Master Choral and the L.A. Philharmonic—protesting the loss of the elementary music program, but the cuts, deemed necessary to keep the district solvent, were passed.
The board prioritized student athletic programs over music programs, and it made no cuts in any of the sports classes and activities on the district campuses.
The board of education also approved a plan to cut the school year by five days this year and next, for an estimated savings of $4 million.
As a result of the furlough days, school will end one week earlier for all district students this year.
The official end of the school year at all district schools will be Friday, June 18, instead of the following Friday, June 25.
The graduation date for Malibu high school seniors will be Thursday, June 17.
The new eight grade promotion date will be Friday, June 18.
In 2010-11, the five furlough days will reportedly be spread throughout the calendar year.
The board also passed an amendment to its contract with Superintendent of Schools Tim Cuneo, decreasing his salary by six days—a 2.73 percent reduction.
The superintendent, whose salary and bonus package has drawn criticism, has agreed to not accept a performance bonus for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years, and has accepted a 10 percent decrease in his automobile, phone and housing allowance.
The districts other three top administrators, chief administrative officer Chiung-Sally Chou, and assistant superintendents Jan Maez and Mike Matthews, will also take a six-day salary cut.
The reductions are part of the district’s ongoing effort to cope with a deficit generated by cuts in state funding that is projected to reach $14 million.
The board received assurances from Matthews, who led the district’s negotiations with the unions over the staff reductions, that some or even all of the 61 certificated staff set to receive pink slips could potentially be rehired if state budget projections are less dire than currently forecast, or if the district passes Measure A, the newly named $195 emergency parcel tax that is set for a May 25 mail-in vote, and could raise a potential $5.7 million per year for five years, starting in 2011.
“We can at any time bring a position back,” Matthews said. “You can always add a position.”
Maez, who serves as the district’s chief financial officer was less sanguine, warning that, even if the parcel tax passes, additional reductions will be necessary by 2012.
“If we do all of the deduction plan that’s in place right now, we have the furloughs that have been negotiated and we continue at the same pace, we will be looking again in the 2011-12, 2012-13 year for additional reductions. Even with [Measure A’s] passage some reductions [will] be required.”
Even the immediate future appears bleak, according to Maez, who predicted more cuts from Sacramento. “[It’s] almost for certain that some additional reductions will come to education in the next month,” she said.
“This is a hard vote to take,” Boardmember Ben Allen said, summing up the mood of the evening. “Nobody likes passing a measure like this. We’re facing some great unknowns.”