Dear Parents,

For the past month I have been meeting with employee groups with the goal of having everybody understand the state of our district budget and the magnitude and types of cuts that may have to be made. Until just a few days ago, we were basing our predictions on our current financial condition and on the Governor's proposed budget for 2010 as it was revised in May, 2010.

Last week, the Governor and key legislative leaders finally worked out a budget compromise, 100 days after it was due, and on Friday night the Governor signed the proposal into law. Now we have a more clear idea of what our funding will be for this year. Because it incorporates several tenuous assumptions, the  state's budget solution is not rock-solid, but it is no longer built on quicksand, either -- more like sandstone!

The best news for us in the new state budget is that did not include a proposed 3.85% cut which we had planned on for the past six months. Combined with the recent arrival of federal jobs money and larger than predicted savings during last year's district belt-tightening, the new state budget allows us to suspend further cutting of programs and positions and to concentrate instead on consolidating and rebuilding.

Does this mean that we are out of the woods? By no means; we still have major unmet needs that will be addressed before we can get back the "normal" that we all appreciated a few years ago. Our class sizes still need to be brought down, and the new budget news doesn't help with that. We have also curtailed or eliminated some services or programs that we would like to restore in the future. But for now, we can take a breath and direct our attention to improving our programs and schools.

A question that I've been asked is "Why the sudden turnaround?" and my answer is twofold: first, this isn't really a turnaround as much as it is a leveling off of a downward trend -- we still have a lot of work to do before we can start "pulling up." About the "suddenness," we are pretty much at the mercy of the state's budget cycle; we have to plan for the worst case that the state proposes, until the state assures us otherwise.

We have a lot of work still to do in our quest to "get back to normal," and I invite you to join me and key staff members for two Town Hall meetings where we will share with you the latest information and the steps we will be taking to set us on the path for recovery. Of course, we also hope to collect new ideas and approaches as we strive to continue providing the very best educational opportunities for your children during a very challenging time.

The meeting dates are:

Thursday, October 21, 7:00 p.m. at Cano Hall, Las Lomitas School
Tuesday, October 26, 9:30 a.m. at MUR, La Entrada School

I hope to see you there.

Yours,

Eric Hartwig
Superintendent