Fiscal and Enrollment Update 8-20-10

Here is a quick update on fiscal, enrollment, and layoff related issues in the Sylvan Union School District.

Budget Update

As you probably know, there is little movement in Sacramento regarding the State budget. The Democrats have developed a budget that will not be approved by the Republicans or the Governor. It is predicted the expected standoff will go on for weeks.

The good news of Federal money to save jobs may be coming our way in the next few weeks. Exactly how much and when is still unknown. The money is supposed to be used only for saving site level teachers, administrators and classified staff. The funding is one time and must be spent by September 2012. I will update you as we learn more.

The County has approved our budget for this year and the following two years. The good news is that, although we are in deficit spending all three years, we have a budget that will retain the 3% required contingency by the end of the 2012-13 school year. The bad news is that will need to reduce our expenditures by another 8.8 million in the next two years based on the Governor’s May Revision.

We reduced our budget by just under 5 million for this year. While it is not precise, you can link (links to the right) to the summary of reductions made for this year. This chart also compares the reductions made the previous two years as well.

We all remain hopeful that the economy will improve and funding will be restored for public education again.

Enrollment Update

Our enrollment is fairly stable as compared to last year and that is good news. Now that our students are all back we can do a little comparison to previous years. The chart below shows the end of the first week of school for traditional as a comparison point.

Enrollment Comparisons
	2010	2009	2008	2007
C.F. BROWN	416	401	461	460
SHERWOOD	516	494	445	492
SOMERSET	871	925	950	1028
STANDIFORD	473	454	458	477
STOCKARD COFFEE	478	469	470	497
SYLVAN	315	326	375	381
WOODROW	395	389	439	500
USTACH	931	928	939	900
ORCHARD	479	504	504	534
FREEDOM	697	639	560	514
SAVAGE	1037	1103	1145	1057
SANDERS	657	649	629	587
CROSSROADS	860	845	831	794
TOTAL	8125	8126	8206	8221

As most of you know, our class sizes in the primary grades are significantly higher than last year. This is a direct result of the layoffs. Our K-5 enrollment and average class sizes, as of today, are as follows:

Totals		Totals		Averages
K		882		28.5
1		806		29.9
2		894		27.9
3		833		27.8
4		856		29.5
5		867		29.9
TOTAL		5138		28.9

If you are interested in seeing actual class by class comparisons for K-5, I have posted a PDF document on this blog to the right.

Because we have reached our maximum in some grade levels and at some schools, we have begun overflowing students between schools. An additional kindergarten teacher has been hired at Standiford to deal with unanticipated grown in that area.

Layoff Update

The status of our layoffs is as follows:

Certificated:

1. By May 21^st, 50 positions received final layoff notices.
2. By June 10^th, 31.6 FTE layoffs were rescinded. This was a result of retirements (13), resignations, transfers to admin or IF positions, or granted leaves. In addition, a furlough day agreement was reached allowing a number of positions to be saved for the 2010-11 school year.
3. There are still 35 individuals on our layoff list, 19 from 2009-10 layoffs and 16 from 2008-9 layoffs.
4. From this layoff list, 7 teachers have been hired in supplemental (temporary) positions and 5 teachers (that we know of) have taken positions in other districts.

Classified:

1. By June 1^st, 12 positions or just over 10 FTE positions received final layoff notices.
2. By July, the FTE layoff list reduced to 4.37 FTE due to CSEA’s agreement to freeze salary steps and save jobs.

I encourage your questions that have not been addressed by this update. I will attempt to respond to you personally and/or include your questions in my next update.

I thank you all for your tremendous spirit and commitment to the students and your colleagues. We still remain the best and highest achieving district in our area. In spite of our economic challenges, I am confident in you all and applaud your energy and passion for serving our educational community and children.