Candidate response to Ramona Sentinel

By John M. Rajcic

Candidate response to Ramona Sentinel...

NAME... Dr .John M. Rajcic

NAME... Dr .John M. Rajcic

AGE...I have matured.... the young age of the other candidates should not be held against them.

EMPLOYMENT IN BUSINESS...... Vice President General Manager Kawai America Corporation...Established dealer network, instrumental in bringing on line an assembly plant and acquiring subsidiary Corporation...Director Keyboard Finance Corporation... Testified before a Congressional Committee on trade matters, conducted sales seminars in the US, Japan and Europe... Bottom line responsibility...

EMPLOYMENT IN EDUCATION: I have been a high school teacher, adjutant professor, and Deputy Superintendent of the Irvine Unified School District...I have also been heavily involved in establishing educational programs and teaching in the military and industry.

MILITARY... (Reserve and Regular) progressed through the ranks to Assistant Chief of Staff 6th Army. ...I am also a certified logistician.

EDUCATION... BA... U of Minnesota...MS USC...PhD Claremont Graduate University, graduate of the Army Command and Staff College and the Army War College.

Possess life time teaching and administration credentials. I'm a certified CBO (chief school business official),

ELECTED OFFICES... none

MOST CRITICAL ISSUES FACING THE DISTRICT......insure a sound financial base as the District moves into the future and continue to maintain a safe, secure and wholesome school environment....encourage physical fitness for the entire community.. The districts revenue limit is based on a unified school district(k-12)...High school Districts (generally 9-12 some 7-12 etc) have a higher revenue limit ,all things being equal....if total enrollment shifts from elementary to secondary ..Secondary costs are higher...RUSD ...will experience a "revenue squeeze."...This coupled with the incremental creep" in the salary schedule and declining enrollment would cause a major financial bind for the district...Repayment of the $25,000,000 certificate of deposit if not managed prudently will cause a problem..The district is headed toward a financial problem..declining enrollment alone...loss of 200 students means a $1,200,000 loss in revenue...fiancial woes are compunded by deficit financing.. Check it out on the District's web...look For.."Fiscal Crisis and Mangement Assistance Team " report..

MY FAMILY has lived in Ramona for 11 years...My Wife, Connie and I have 4 children 9 grandchildren. Two grandchildren are in Ramona schools. We are involved in and support or supported many community activities.

REASONS FOR SEEKING OFFICE.hopefully my education, values and experience in the public and private sector would be beneficial to the district. I have studied and taught school finance and have a deep interest in finance and would do my part to insure our district is financially viable...without increasing taxes..I believe I am a problem solver and concerned with policy. .I am not a micro-manager, never have been. I do hold and will do my part to hold staff accountable.

BOARD MEETINGS. I have attended a few school board meetings. Meetings are generally routine... Controversial issues usually generate a crowd. The populace should be encouraged to attend board meetings...however, in our Replublic we elect board members to represent us...the board should give more information before a meeting and not merely the "bare bones" agenda and a schedule of meetings. I believe better policies would surface.

Percentage of the budget:(data supplied by District's Business Manager )

For administration (Include all fringe benefits) 4.7%

For teachers (include fringe benefits) 50%

Support staff (all others) (include fringe benefits) 19.4%

HOW WILL THE DECLNING STUDENT ENROLLMENT IMPACT THE DISTRICT...obviously if funding patterns remain (each student generates about $6000) the district will necessarily have to downsize... downsizing policy as it relates to staff is generally a part of contract negations...attrition, and early retirement takes care of some of the problem. But it is difficult for any bureaucracy to downsize.... The district is in fair shape today, out years willpresent a major problem... to solve financial problems, I would not ask for a tax increase....possibly across the board cuts or elimination of administrative positions and freeze salaries including the "incremental creep". Downsizing would require tough negotiations with the teacher's union. Honest and accurate financial data must be presented to the employee associations at all times...Employees would play a vital role in situations where there is a financial crunch...

THE DISTRICTS. $25,000,000 (certificate of deposit)loan to support the building program was a good idea...the district received an additional $36, 0000 from the state without a repayment obligation .The loan is backloaded with no payments in 2008, 2009,2010 and will be retired in 2029 and the final payment will be $2,175,000 a good plan going in...the district more than likely could not pass a bond issue and the oportunity arose for the ditrict to get $36,000,OOO but had to come up with $25,000,000...thus the District had $61,000,000 for construction... Retirement of the loan was based upon developer fees and a possible bond....I think a bond election would be difficult to realize and developer fees more than likely will continue to slow down... $25,000,000 is half our general fund budget and seems ominous at first glance....The board most keep on top of this concern and be considering establishing a realistic fund to meet any contingencies ...a reasonable set aside from the general fund budget is required to satisfy the loan in the out years...the problem is defintely compounded by deficit financing ,down-turn in developer fees and declining enrollement as was indicated.

The loan (is a certificate of participation) basically a variable interest rate loan from US Bank.... fully amortized in 2029.

COMMENT: I believe the district's comparative data should be based upon districts with comparable demographics, rather than county and state averages.......averages may be misleading , because on the average one can't drown in the Mississippi River it is only 6 inches deep...Being a fiscal conservative I am a friend of the taxpayer ..the taxpayers I know are not against kids or the classroom. They are against bureaucratic waste and inefficiency...they want maximum bang for the buck.. Gather the facts and vote..