The Coming Challenges for the Cloverdale School District

By Susan Ruffner-Statzer

The Cloverdale Unified School District must ensure quality education, balance the budget ... and support teachers to battle declining enrollment.

First, we need to be sure that we do not have any more significant errors in the budget. Our schools will continue to pay for these errors for the next few years. Each and every member of the school board has to look at the budget with a critical eye. I am in support of hiring a Chief Budget Officer who can manage the district's money and attract new money (in the form of state funding and grants). We have to be willing to spend enough to get someone who is experienced and qualified. At the same time, we must hold that person accountable for saving the district at least enough money to 'pay for that position.' I would carefully screen applicants for the Budget Officer position and establish a time frame for and criteria by which the person's effectiveness in saving the district money would be determined. Since my husband and I own a small business and do our own accounting, we are acutely aware that the only reason to invest more money in a project (or person) is the expectation that it's going to pay off down the line. We must determine how far "down the line" we can afford with this position, given our current deficit spending. Second, we must support our teachers. Teachers are the key to education. We need all of the available state and grant money to begin to pay teachers what they are worth and to fund creative teaching projects keeping our teachers and our students interested in what they do. We should also tap into the volunteer community's talents to offer students curricular and extracurricular activities that a tight budget may not be able to afford.

Cloverdale is a wonderful town. People care. They care about their children's education and I believe that they are willing to contribute in any way they can to making our schools the best possible. We just have to let them know HOW they can help. Parents already volunteer in classrooms, start gardening clubs, and PTA's. Let's continue to tap into that energy until we have the most interesting curriculum in Sonoma County.

I would like to establish some short range, medium range and long range goals for our school district and be working on all three at all times. I would like to hold open forums for each school so that parents can have direct access to the school board and we can be accountable to the people who have children in our schools.

With childhood obesity on the rise, one short- term goal of mine is to help the school cafeterias offer menus that meet the recommended amount of fat in the diet. A short and medium range goal is to define how the CUSD budget is going to operate 'in the black.' A long range goal is to meet and exceed the state standards so that we are never in jeopardy of losing state funding.