PTA to Discuss Funding Cuts and Set Course of Action
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The Executive Board of the PTA met for our monthly meeting on April 21st. The focus of the meeting was to consider funding specific cuts being made at Strandwood as a result of the State and school district budget cuts. While the PTA is very fortunate to have had record fundraising this year, it does not necessarily give us the ability to fund what we currently do as well as additional funding requests. At yesterday's meeting we focused on the personnel issues. The PTA currently funds a Reading Instructional Assistant, an Instructional Assistant who splits her time between general support and Art and a portion of the Science Instructional Assistant. We also fund a psychologist intern, a portion of the noon supervisory support and the salary portion of the Ceramics program. The total cost of these is approximately $37,000. Classified personnel being cut at Strandwood include our Site Tech 1 (person who manages the computers), the Computer Instructional Assistant and the school's portion of the Science Instructional Assistant. If we were to fund these positions in addition to what we currently fund that would be a total cost of $66,500, an additional commitment of $29,500.
After extensive discussions, the Executive Board is proposing that for the school year 2009-2010 we fund the Site Tech 1 position, the Instructional Assistants for Science and Reading. We have also asked Mrs. Kim to look into how art instruction would be able to continue as part of an additional instructional assistant position that the PTA will be funding. The PTA would continue to pay for the noon supervisory support but would eliminate the psychologist intern and ceramics. The total cost for the PTA for funding the proposed positions is between $46,000 and $47,000. This is approximately a $10,000 increase from what the PTA is currently funding. We will present this proposal to the general PTA membership at our May 2, meeting.
Also at this meeting, we will be having a presentation on several pieces of equipment, which the school is asking that we consider purchasing. These items and some additional funding requests will be further considered at the May Executive Board meeting. We hope to then have a proposal for the general membership to consider at the June meeting.
All these considerations involve significant amount of money. The PTA is currently projecting a $20,000 surplus for this school year. In addition, last year the membership voted to set aside approximately $37,000 in excess funds from 2007-2008 in a certificate of deposit as unallocated funds to be used if fundraising in 2008-2009 did not meet expectations. Lastly the PTA holds a certificate of deposit for $30,000 that was set aside to ensure funds are available to support of personnel needs for one year.
This is how the numbers break down:
Certificate of deposit for personnel $30,000
Certificate of deposit - unallocated $37,000
Projected excess funds for 2008-2009 $20,000
Total available funds $87,000
As a result of our personnel proposal we will need to increase the CD for personnel to $46,000. The Executive Board is also proposing we maintain $20,000 as reserve for next year. This will leave us $21,000 to consider equipment and software funding.
Total available funds $87,000
CD for personnel ($46,000)
Reserve for 2009-2010 ($20,000)
Total available to spend $21,000
Please join us for both the May and June meetings to participate in these decisions. The entire budget with year-to-date results is on the Strandwood website home page (or by clicking here). If you have additional questions or would like to comment prior to the meeting please feel free to send me an e-mail at smargriet@comcast.net or find me on the playground.
Sue Noack
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