Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

By David "Dave" Johnston

I'm posting responses to Frequently Asked Questions over at my Facebook page <http://facebook.com/johnstonforschoolboard>. Here are some of them. See that page for all of them.

Short answer: When two people look at the same contract, they have can different interpretations of what it means. That's why there are processes for addressing those differences of opinion. My hope is that we can find ways for the adults in our system to work together to find interpretations of the contract they can agree on and to fix contract language when possible to eliminate confusing sections.

Longer answer: Unfortunately, differences of opinion frequently occur when two groups look at the same contract, read the same language, but come to different conclusions over the meaning of that language. Both sides know that they're right and the other side is wrong. That's why we have processes to address the concerns. My hope is that we can find ways to make better use of the informal stage, the first step in the process to resolve the issues before they get to the more formal part of the process. I believe adults can settle their differences if each side is willing to consider the other perspective and work together to find a solution that is mutually agreeable.

I've seen some signs so far this year that things are moving in the right direction. At last week's board meeting the presidents of both the teachers union and the classified (staff other than teachers) union expressed their thanks to the superintendent for her communication with them and her efforts to address their concerns quickly. That's the one of the few times I can remember hearing those sort of positive comments at a board meeting. I'm hopeful that they can continue.

Q: Why is the school district trying to sell the Pomolita lower athletic fields when students and the community need them?

Short answer: Despite media reports and rumors that the City of Ukiah intends to buy or lease the fields, the district isn't interested in either selling or leasing the property.

Longer answer: There have been several newspaper articles and lots of rumors swirling around regarding the City of Ukiah's contract with the Honeywell Corporation and their plan to add a driving range to the Municipal Golf Course. The reports have said that the City's plan was to purchase or lease the athletic fields adjacent to Pomolita to move 2 golf holes to the fields in order to make room for a driving range.

While the City had expressed a casual interest in that property about 4 years ago, despite their recent public statements about planning to acquire the property, they didn't actually contact the district about the property until October 5th of this year.

This afternoon the district sent City Manager Jane Chambers a letter stating that "the Ukiah Unified School District Governing Board has determined that it is not interested in selling or leasing the above-referenced parcels to the City of Ukiah."

I hope that will put to rest these rumors so the community can feel confident that the fields will remain available to students and to the community at large.

Q: Why does the board insist on keeping such huge financial reserves?

Short answer: The approved budgets passed the last several years all had the district spending more than it received. That money had to come from reserves. Fortunately, reductions in district spending and unexpected revenue eliminated most or all of the deficits in the past year couple years. The future outlook hasn't improved so having a reserve for unexpected expenditures or revenue cuts is just prudent financial planning.

Longer Answer: The last few years, the budgets the district has passed in June have included deficit spending, i.e. spending money from reserves to avoid additional cuts. This is like like spending money from savings to keep your family in food and housing. It works in the short term, but it isn't a good long term solution. In the long term, you either have to reduce spending or increase revenue. It is important to understand that these deficits were AFTER all of the cuts the district made in recent years. Had those cuts not been made, the deficits would have been worse.

The district is required by law to have a 3% reserve for financial uncertainty. For UUSD that 3% won't even cover a single month's payroll. A few years ago, as we started into this difficult financial time, the board decided that it wanted a larger reserve to protect the district's staff. So the board instituted an additional 3% board reserve. The 6% reserve is a very modest reserve. It isn't uncommon for school districts to have reserves in excess of 10% of their annual revenue.

Last year's forecast deficit was about $1.5M. The board planned to spend reserves in order to avoid the additional cuts that would have been required to close the deficit.

Fortunately, through reductions in spending from extraordinary staff efforts and unexpected revenue, the district was able to meet all of its obligations last year and add to its ending fund balance (reserves). As a result of that good news, the board is voting next week on restoring some positions such as library technicians, maintenance and a grounds supervisor, as well as providing additional discretionary funds to school principals to use at their school.

Unfortunately, this good news doesn't offset the bleak future financial outlook. The state's financial picture isn't likely to improve until the economy improves. The state is still in deep financial trouble. If it doesn't receive $4B in additional revenue planned in the state budget, mid-year cuts of up to $1.7M for UUSD could appear in December or January. If the state doesn't address the shortfall through mid-year cuts, it could delay the problem until next year's budget resulting in additional education cuts.

While it might be tempting to say that the district should spend down this reserve to restore additional cuts, we have to remember that this reserve is one-time money. Once we spend it, it is gone. You can't plan for it year after year. Last week's estimate is that year's budget deficit is about $700K before any mid-year cuts and adding back the positions that will be considered next week. Hopefully, staff's efforts to reduce spending or unexpected revenue will close that budget gap. Unfortunately, you can't count on that.

When people have suggested that the board should stop planning for the worst-case scenario because it never comes, I remind them that when you don't plan for the worst case, you have to guess right each and every time. If that worst case scenario happens and you're not able to count on reserves, you have no choice but to make additional cuts or if everything falls apart, take a loan from the State of California.

When a district takes a state loan, the state takes over the district. It replaces the Superintendent with a State Administrator who they select. The board becomes an advisory body rather than a decision-making body. The State Administrator's primary goal is to get the district on sound enough financial footing that it can pay the state back the money that it received as a loan. The administrator doesn't have the same desire to provide the best possible education for our students that we do. When there is a state takeover, it generally lasts about 10 years. It is not something that anyone should want.

While there is such incredible continuing uncertainty in state funding, the prudent thing to do is to be careful how you expend those limited reserves to avoid getting caught by the worst case scenario.

Q: Why did the district buy new English books last year that are still sitting in the warehouse?

Short answer: The district had one-time funds for materials that had to be used last year, so they bought them. Principals said their teachers were saying they needed a year to implement the new math curriculum before they started implementing the new English curriculum.

Longer Answer: School funding usually has deadlines for its use. In this case, the district had state funding for purchasing needed classroom materials that had a deadline for its use of the last school year. The district had adopted new English Language Arts materials and needed to purchase the materials. So they used those funds before they expired to purchase the needed English Language Arts materials.

As the district staff worked on the schedule for implementing the adopted materials, principals shared that their teachers were asking for a year to finish implementing the new math curriculum, adopted the previous year, before beginning the implementation of the English Language Arts curriculum.

A few schools, specifically Eagle Peak, Pomolita and Grace Hudson had a critical need for the new materials and their staff members wanted to implement them this year. Those schools have the new materials and are well involved in using them.

The remaining schools will receive training in the new materials this year and they'll be implementing the new English Language Arts curriculum next year.

So, while it is true that materials are sitting in the warehouse, the truth is that was the plan. District staff, principals and teachers determined the best way to implement the new curriculum was in two phases, rather than all at once.

Q: Why did the board close the school libraries?

Short answer: None of the libraries in the district are closed. The hours of the library techs who service elementary and middle school libraries have been reduced as a cost saving measure. Teachers have the ability to open the libraries to their students at any time.

Longer answer: Ukiah High's library is still open during the school day, five days a week. Only the elementary and middle schools have changes to their library schedule.

As part the effort to close the district's budget deficit, one of the solutions implemented for this school year was to reduce the number of Library Technicians who provide library services to elementary and middle schools. This year, each site (except Ukiah High) only has a Library Technician one day a week to handle duties such as maintaining the collection, data entry for the computer system, etc.

Because of fewer hours of staffing, the times when classes have scheduled access to the library with a Library Technician present had to be reduced as well. In order to provide additional access to the library, teachers have the ability to take their classes to the library as often as they see fit. It isn't a perfect system, but by giving teachers the ability to open the library, students still have the use of the facility.

School budgets are a constantly moving target as new information is received regarding the state budget, previous year's expenditures and other funding sources is received throughout the year. During the last school year, Library Technicians were restored for the rest of the year using one-time funding. If the budget situation improves this year, the administration and the board will likely revisit that possibility again.

• 10/4/2011 Update: At the 10/11/2011 School Board meeting, we will vote on restoring these positions for the remainder of this school year.

Short answer: The managers took 5 days the previous year. Rather than asking them to take 10 days (5 each year), the board restored the 5 furlough days for the second year.

Longer Answer: During a time of fiscal crisis, the district asked each of the three employee groups to agree to give up 5 furlough days in order to reduce the number of layoffs and other unpleasant money-saving options. The management group immediately came forward and agreed to take 5 days with the caveat that they match whatever the other employee groups did. Those days were immediately removed from their contract for that year.

The district was able to negotiate 5 furlough days with the Ukiah Teachers Association (UTA), which represents certificated staff in the district. Because of the time that it took for the negotiations, those days were taken in the following year. The district was unable to negotiate any furlough days with the classified union in either year.

Since the management team had already taken 5 furlough days the previous year, the board felt that it had to make good on the agreement that they not take more furlough days than the other employee groups. The board restored the 5 furlough days for the management team for that second year. Both groups had 5 furlough days, only they were in different years. The suggestion that the teachers were the only group to take furlough days is incorrect.