School Board Hears Concerns for Employee Retention 

Large Crowd Gathers for Superintendent's State of the District Address and Plan for Financial Future of All Schools

As he has for the past seven years, Coronado Unified School District Superintendent Jeff Felix spoke to the School Board about the successes achieved last year, the financial condition of the District, and the need for calm throughout this tumultuous time. 

"Coronado schools flourished with academic success, even during the worst recession in history," said Dr. Felix. "I am very proud of our faculty, staff, and administrators.  But no business can cut to the bone and still deliver the same level of services.  We are now officially cut to the bone."

Felix said that all of the fears that were made known if additional revenue were not found have come true.  He said the loss of Proposition E in June forced the Board to accept over $2.3 million in cuts, a staggering amount for such a small school district.  He suggested the School Board accept the fact that the District will not change their financial fate in the near future.

"State leaders will not be changing this new funding formula any time soon," said Dr. Felix. "Unfortunately we are in a predicament that is not of our own doing and one that will not change for over 10 years."

Felix also pointed out that employees earned less throughout the 5 year recession as a result of furloughs.  He said this has harmed the District's ability to retain, progress, and replace employees, especially as other districts are increasing their pay schedules.  He noted that it is costly to replace workers because of the productivity losses when someone leaves a job, the costs of hiring and training a new employee, and the slower productivity until the new employee gets up to speed in their new job.

"Our employees have not received a pay increase for over 8 years, said Dr. Felix.  "If this trend continues, we will lose our best and brightest employees and not be able to replace them with a person of equal skill.  This fact and the constant concern over losing their job has created low morale among many staff members."

A multi-year three part plan was proposed by Felix in October and was reiterated in his speech.  He recommended that the staff continue to find ways to save and not increase expenses in any way.  He also advocated for finding unique ways to generate non-traditional forms of revenue, such as is being done with the BBMAC pool and with Crown Preschool.  His third proposal was to forego some of the maintenance on the buildings and grounds over the next ten years so that money is available for emergencies in the general fund.

"We must maintain our educational standards at all costs," stated Dr. Felix. "If that means living with walls that are in need of paint or carpet in need of repair, then so be it."

A full copy of the Superintendent's address can be downloaded here.

CMS and CHS Students Participate in National Convention

CMS 8th grade student, Lucilla Gomez and CHS 12th grade senior, Patrick Clark, opened up the National Association of Secondary School Principal's (NASSP) Conference being held in San Diego this week.  Both Lucilla and Patrick welcomed over 1,800 principals, administrators and distinguished guests, by speaking in Spanish and English and providing a greeting.  After the warm greeting, they led all of the audience members in the pledge of allegiance and thanked them for attending the conference on behalf of all the students across our nation.

NASSP has both national and global members and is the largest secondary school principal professional development network in the U.S.  Our Coronado community was represented by two incredible students who received numerous compliments from the audience members in attendance. This was another great moment and celebration of our talented Coronado students and 

School District.