Cutting bone

A colorful brochure recently mailed to residents of Altadena, Sierra Madre and Pasadena — the three communities that comprise the Pasadena Unified School District — paints a grim picture of the district’s financial situation, one in which the Board of Education may have to lay off teachers, close schools and cut math, science and arts programs in order to close a $20 million budget deficit in the $255 million budget for 2010.

“This is the worst financial crisis the district has ever faced,” Board President Tom Selinske told the Weekly. “We have already reduced $31 million and we are looking at another $20 million,” the equivalent of 270 teacher salaries. “That would be the largest single-year cut in PUSD history.”

The district, Selinske said, is reviewing a lengthy list of possible cuts, which includes laying off up to 100 of its 1,161 teachers.

“It is unprecedented what we may have to deal with. There is no fat. We are cutting bone,” Selinske said. “This will impact all levels of the district. These cuts mean fewer adults in kids’ lives, and that’s the wrong way to go.”

Teachers also aren’t thrilled about plans to balance the district’s budget with money saved by slashing their jobs.
“We oppose the cuts to the classroom,” said Jeffrey Leming, acting president of the United Teachers of Pasadena. The district must submit a two-year budget to the Los Angeles County Department of Education later this month.

Preliminary numbers from that budget — which must include cuts — are due by Dec. 15. If the board votes to lay off teachers, notices would be mailed on March 15.

“We are concerned, because we have made so many gains over the past few years, and losing teachers is going to make educating Pasadena’s children that much harder,” Leming said.

PUSD Academic Performance Index scores have increased 53 points over the past five years. During that same period, Los Angeles County’s API scores increased 43 points, and the statewide average rose 46 points.

If 100 teachers were laid off, it would force the elimination of advanced math and science classes and arts programs, increase kindergarten to third-grade class sizes from 22 to 30 students, and result in less one-on-one time for students, according to the brochure.

Although the district has polled voters to see if they would be receptive to a parcel tax, the money raised from that would not approach covering the deficit, according to Selinske, unless the tax imposed on each of the district’s 70,000 parcels is close to $300. A $100 increase would only raise $7 million a year, he said.

Selinske believes voters would not likely approve any $300 tax hike in this fractured economy, which has left many local homeowners struggling to make ends meet.

Pasadena is not alone in that regard. School districts across Southern California have been seeking voter-approved tax increases to help offset the financial damage done to public education by $12 billion in state budget cuts, which have led to more than 17,000 teachers statewide losing their jobs and the closure of arts and after-school programs, according to the California Teachers Association. California currently ranks 47th in per-pupil spending.

According to Selinske, the latest budget deficit could force the district to close schools for the second time in four years. In 2005, Noyes, Allendale, Edison and Linda Vista elementary schools were shuttered.

Selinske said that school closures would be a last resort, but said that the idea could not be taken off the table.
The four-page brochure and attached survey recognizes significant gains in student test scores over the past few years. “Those dramatic improvements are the result of many factors, including class sizes, challenging programs and assistance for students struggling with the basics,” it states. “Deep state funding reductions threaten to erase this progress.”

The brochure concludes with a survey asking residents to rank laying off 100 teachers, increasing class size, closing neighborhood schools, cutting advanced instruction in math, science and technology, reducing security at local campuses, closing school libraries, reducing or eliminating art and music education, cutting career and technical training that prepare students for the workforce, cutting advanced placement and college prep courses that help students get into college and reducing student health services.

“The situation is dire and part of the objective is to make the community understand this could be very devastating,” said PUSD Communications Director Binti Harvey, who said the results of the survey, which was mailed in mid-November, were not yet available. “We want to get some initial feedback and inform the public about the fiscal crisis the district is facing and allow them to give us some input as to what their priorities are,” Harvey said.

One recipient of the brochure was unimpressed with either the product or the options being considered by the district to save money.

“One of their solutions calls for laying off 100 teachers. There would be more savings and less of an impact on classroom instruction if they laid off half as many administrators,” wrote Stephen De Sal of Sierra Madre, a former PUSD teacher. “How about having part-time principals, or principals who shared schools? Surely this would have less of an impact on students than laying off more teachers.”

“As with PUSD’s suggestion to cut the arts and music, the programs are so wanting, how much of a savings could be recovered? None of my students ever received quality instruction in music or art from the district, unless I clandestinely provided it for them in my classroom.  Why not begin thinking about cutting athletic programs? Why are they sacrosanct, if this is indeed such an extraordinary budgetary crisis?  PUSD also offers to close school libraries. But aren’t they virtually closed? As I understand it, most district librarians now serve in a part-time capacity,” De Sal wrote.

“Why not save money by getting rid of whomever it was that advised the district to assemble and mail out this glossy brochure? One wonders how much this boondoggle set PUSD back,” wrote De Sal, who did not respond to requests for an interview.

The cost of the brochure was not immediately available.

“I am horrified by where we are,” said Board member Renatta Cooper said. “This is really scary. Even if we didn’t do the brochure it would not have made a difference. I just hope people see the bigger picture about where our schools are, instead of focusing on the quality of the paper on that brochure. … I don’t think the money from the brochure would have a made a dent in the money we need.”

Editor Kevin Uhrich contributed to this story.