Corrects date of the first special meeting as being held Tuesday, Feb. 3. The meeting is set to start with a presentation by a county-appointed fiscal-oversight adviser.
One might notice the grass is growing a little longer at Castaic Union school sites.
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And next year, there will probably be fewer hands on deck to help around campus.
Castaic education officials know as well as anyone despite Proposition 30 taxing California residents a little bit more in order to fund schools, some smaller, less impoverished school districts actually are seeing less money.
When you add that to an inexplicable 300-student loss in 18 months, you have the makings of a full-on financial crisis for an otherwise fiscally sound district that just weathered a recent, devastating economic downturn relatively unscathed.
While the Castaic Union School District was able to avoid layoffs during the Great Recession — maintaining its point-of-pride 20-to-1 student-teacher ratio in the process — changes in the state’s funding formula, and more significantly, enrollment, have the 2,500-student K-8 district addressing a $4.1 million funding gap, said Superintendent Jim Gibson.
Michele McClowry, a Los Angeles County Office of Education fiscal adviser, is expected to give a report Tuesday, Feb. 3 on what the district is doing to address recent money woes, such as reducing its landscaping costs by $6,000 a month.
The district is holding three public three meetings in the coming months, in addition to an upcoming Feb. 11 wine-tasting fundraiser, to try to raise awareness about the issues.
“Everything helps and a lot of our people are coming to the forefront and saying, ‘How can we help?’” Gibson said, “and there’s the good side of that.”
But he’s also anticipating a lot of tough conversations.
Signs of distress
Gibson has known since before August there were going to be funding concerns, and there was likely little the district could do to prevent them, he said Friday.
The state’s much ballyhooed Local Control Funding Formula, which was meant to increase district disparities statewide in funding and programming, immediately cut about $700,000 from the CUSD budget, Gibson said.
Because the formula is meant to incentivize smaller classroom sizes, providing more money for schools with larger student-teacher ratios, the district immediately saw an out-of-pocket cut of about $480 per student for its roughly 2,500 students for no other reason than it already had small classrooms, Gibson said.
On top of that, there were far fewer pupils in the classrooms. While enrollment has been on the decline for the last 10 years, with the district losing an average of 110 students a year, a good chunk of that has come in the last 18 months, about 300, he added.
The loss of 300 students wasn’t to charter schools, private schools or even out of the county, Gibson said, but reflective of a statewide trend. California is losing residents to the tune of several hundred thousand a year, Gibson said, which he sees evidence of in the form of requests for student transcripts from Texas, Kentucky and beyond.
The loss to schools in the area, regardless of public or private, is negligible, Gibson said.
Working on a fiscal solution
In August, when it appeared as though the district’s budget would have a “negative certification,” a Los Angeles County Office of Education fiscal adviser was brought in to help with corrective measures and provide oversight, Gibson said.
The attempts being discussed are numerous and painful, he lamented, but necessary to keep the district viable.
The district announced the intended layoff of 23 classified employees — most of them part-time workers, such as janitors and classroom aides.
Those cuts, which are expected to be finalized in March, includes two custodians, four library tech aides, a reduction of hours for lunch-time duty and, in some cases, changing schedules, represented a significant savings.
However, more cuts were necessary.
There also been the discussion of a 10 percent districtwide salary reduction for staff, Gibson said, which has not yet been agreed upon by union representatives or the district’s governing board.
The plan was discussed in an open board meeting, but the first of several public meetings is planned for Tuesday, Feb. 3, when the negotiation with teacher representatives are expected to begin in earnest in closed session.
Most of the discussion at that meeting would be in closed session, Gibson said, however, the results will be discussed at the other meetings.
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According to the byline, is the meeting being held: Monday, February 5, 2015 or Monday, February 2, 2015 or Thursday, February, 5, 2015?
The bottom line to all of the financial problems/irregularities/bad management at the Castaic Union School District: The taxpayers are being fleeced and once again, taxpayers are left holding the bag (in this case an empty bag) by government/school district bureaucrats!
Mr. Gibson must tender his resignation immediately! This will give the Board the opportunity to begin fresh, make the needed/immediate cuts to reduce spending/expenses and hire a new superintendent. The State Board of Education can at least temporarily provide an interim superintendent to the Castaic Union School District while a search by the board is commenced.
One of the areas that should have been cut and eliminated a long time ago is the non-required/non mandated school bus service. It’s a money-losing drain hole! If Mr. Gibson can substantiate numbers/figures that prove otherwise, then I will retract my statement. The school bus service that the district is mandated to provide for special education/special needs students should be outsourced to a third-party vendor. Eliminating all school bus service by the Castaic Union School District would go a very long way in reducing administrative and capital expense. The buses are noisy, stinky, take too long for students to travel to and from school each day – cutting into homework time, and where are the seat belts? The transportation yard on Henry Mayo will be deemed “surplus”, and can be sold at a reasonable profit, now that the commercial real estate market has returned to a somewhat healthier level.
Other school districts within the Santa Clarita Valley eliminated non-required/non-mandated school bus service many years ago. City of Santa Clarita Transit is very capable in providing Tripper service to those areas of Castaic and Val Verde where OPTIONAL bus service is being requested by the parents. In fact, Santa Clarita Transit currently operates Tripper service into both Castaic and Val Verde, and has done so for many years.
I’m sure many of you see the big articulated Santa Clarita Transit bus that winds it’s way each morning and afternoon through Castaic. If the Tripper service is working for the junior high and high schools, certainly it will work for the elementary schools and the one middle school.
Lastly, maybe it’s time to begin preparations for a Santa Clarita Valley-wide district consolidation among the elementary districts, and Castaic being the only district with a middle school can begin the necessary approval process to relinquish the middle school to the Hart Union High School District.
It moves Castaic toward the “One Valley…One Vision” goal in offering a better educational product.
Lastly, I do not believe Mr. Gibson that none of the charters and/or religious-affiliated schools have not taken away students/market share from the Castaic Union School District. How parents many requested transcripts from Kentucky?….Really? What about the number of pupils living within the Castaic Union School District boundaries whose parents never enrolled their elementary-aged school children within the district. Why are those students not counted as a loss? The numbers (at least from the charters) are publicly available. How many are home-schooling within the district?
Where is the accountability to the taxpayers?
HASLEY_HILLSLIDE
Dont think CES & CMS really needed new air-conditioners. Hope the Solar Panels didn’t add too much $$.
I’m a teacher in Castaic and have taught at both school sites and yes new a/c units were needed. Try teaching in a classroom that’s 85*.
I have personally worked at all the districts in santa clarita and castaic is by far the worst they treat all therer employees like dirt and pay the distroct office workers more salary then any other districf
Wow MR. Halsey Hillside
As a an employee in the transportation dept … How about you actually get your facts straight !!! Bus transportation is a necessity for this community …. Where are the sidewalks where are the crossing guards for these children whom live in val verde ,north lake hills , double c ranch ,violin Cyn, etc these children families need the buses … As they need to get to work and provide for their families and the supplies the district lacks to provide their teachers with so the children can get an education …. Teachers and all employees do it for the love of our children in OUR COMMUNITY we all pitch in that extra $$$ you don’t provide to us . As if we don’t have our own families to support !! While you over staff our district and manage to conveniently reassign position within your district office personal and hand out raises in the middle do a budget crisis!!!! Our parents in val verde are also hard working people you can pass by between 6:30 to 7:30 am and you will see lotz of parents riding bikes to work because they don’t have the means to purchase vehicles they rather work and provide for their families instead of going to govt and asking for a handout ! As if it’s our children’s fault they live where they live that you want to take not only their teachers whom give them that education and their transportation away to get to school you want to make them less ass if they are not the reason why your district has a job in the first place!!! Have you thought of the bigger picture … These families are already thinking of going to the nearest charter schools because of transportation problems and you think this won’t affect OUR SCHOOLS !!! Mismanagement & poor leadership is what you should be looking at ! Have you not seen where the bus yard is at ? Do you know what it cost to be there ? Our busses smell and are noisy ? Really ??? But I’m sure you didn’t have your children ride them because you are one of the persons that has the means to transport your child ? It’s not our children’s fault why are they being punished ? People like you make me sick … Go to the meetings get involved step out of your little perfect glass house before you speak … But then again FREEDOM OF SPEECH RIGHT!!!
There is absolutely no mention of the 12 teachers that have received lay-off slips from Northlake Hills alone…. Among those teachers are the entire 1st grade and 3rd grade teaching staff and a few other wonderful teachers from various grades. This is a huge loss for our school in particular. Something needs to be done now, or I know that my kids won’t be attending any Castaic schools in the future.
Let’s stop the bickering and name calling. We teach our children not to act like this, so let’s buck up and act our age. We have a huge crisis facing us and we must take action, before drastic measures are enforced. First and foremost the board must be held accountable and answer the tough questions. It has been said Mr Gibson received raises and bonuses, and not so much for the teachers. And now teachers are being asked to take a reduction in pay, and some like our precious Kindergarten teacher, will pay the biggest sacrifice, their job .. their livelihood, their passion. Why doesn’t Mr Gibson forgoe some of his HUGE paychecks to help the cause. Why do the teachers have to pay the price for the board’s lack of financial direction. I’m sure they have meant well .. but a lack of $4.1 million just doesn’t sneak up on you. For that type of deficit it takes YEARS to accumulate!! And Mr Gibson has known before August or is that what he is telling us tax payers so he doesn’t look so bad?!!?!? Where were the cuts then? What did he do THEN to help spare this heartache now??? He needs to answer to that …and having less children attend our district, and the ADA money does not add up to $4.1 million dollars? That’s absolutely absurd if he thinks that is a fair and just answer! Something fishy is presenting itself and something must be done so our children, our futures, don’t suffer. Ever heard of the accountant/ lunch lady down in Rialto, Ca or Georgia who stole millions?? Something does not compute and we need answers. But currently we will all have to make sacrifices and compromises to keep our schools, teachers, futures working and growing .. and if busing is one of the most costly cuts we make, then we do it. Afterall, it is about the chiildren and their education environment. We need to take action, and it must be forceful! “Hasley hillside” did mention there is a great bus service through the valleys. It is not mandatory. Nothing is MANDATORY! I took the RTD growing up and it gave me so much confidence and independence!! I lived in a similar situation no sidewalks, both my parents worked …. BUT WE MADE IT WORK CAUSE I HAD TO GET TO SCHOOL! We need to look at all aspects of this. Essentially, TEACHERS WILL BE CUT and our CLASSROOMS WILL BE CROWDED!! The president of the school board gets reelected at the end of this year …. Everything from the top of the Castaic board to the classrooms need be revamped! Our futures are at stake. Let’s work together and solve this … let’s try to keep our teachers first and foremost, keep the class size as it is, and our children safe and in a great learning environment.
23 lay-off notices have already been handed out to Bus Drivers, Instructional Aides, Custodians, Librarians, and Noon Duties. Teachers are next by March 15th. The district is proposing that the employees accept a 10% pay cut. What the district hasn’t done thus far is show cuts to the Management staff this year or next. The recovery plan that was passed out at the school board meeting shows Admin retirements in 2016-2017. How about forced retirement! How about the pay raise and promotion that was just given to the HR person because she threatened to quit! The justification by a school board member was that she is “a valued employee.” Changes need to occur in Administration!
Mas esta abnegación no puede implicar una mala gestión de tu tiempo, ni provocar que tu vida profesional sea un orificio negro por el que se pierden miles de
horas de año en año. No sin humor y con cierto realismo,
ciertos autores agregan a estas competencias un factor externo, la
fortuna.