At last night's Coordinating Council meeting (a monthly meeting for all of TUSD's PTO/PTA presidents) there was a presentation about upcoming budget issues. The District Office was represented by Brock Wagner: Deputy Superintendant of Planning and Operations, Tony Soria: Chief Financial Officer and Kathie Nielsen: Chief Academic Officer.
The news about the affect that California's budget crisis was having on the TUSD budget was sobering. Over the last three years, TUSD has lost over $38 million in revenue from the state. This year and next year, the District projects to lose millions more in State funding equaling a loss of 25% of its total funding.
In order to address this budget shortfall, the District is looking at all its options, across the board. Two of the options discussed last night were class size increases and shortening the school year.
Application For Class Size Waiver
By the current state statute established in 1964, class sizes are mandated to average no more than:
24.5 to 1 in 1st Grade, 30 to 1 in Grades 2 & 3 and 30.5 to 1 in Grades 4 through 8. The District is planning on applying for a Class Size Waiver which would allow them to increase class sizes to an average of 34 to 1 in grades 1 through 8. This increase would affect all TUSD elementary and middle schools, not just Loma Vista.
Shortening the 2010-2011 School Year
The Governor has approved the shortening of the school year by up to 10 days. 5 of those days can be instructional days. The District would save $500 thousand dollars each day they closed for a savings of $5 million if they closed the entire 10 days. Nothing was said about how these days would be determined. This shortening would affect the entire Tustin School district.
Again, none of these changes have been finalized. They are options only at this point in time. However, it was clear last night that changes are coming and we need to be prepared.
As we learn more, we will be forwarding this information to you. Please plan on coming to the next PTO General meeting on February 17th - noon in the MPR. We will be discussing the impact of these possible options on our own students.
Deborah Brannon and Honour Del Crognale
PTO Co-Presidents
