Friday, Feb. 22, 2008

Modesto City Schools' funds on chopping block

District facing $12M in cuts, tough choices

Modesto City Schools officials will ask the Board of Education to make $12 million in budget cuts for the upcoming school year, as the district faces declining enrollment and threats of deep cuts at the state level.

In a special meeting Tuesday night, the board will vote on whether to eliminate junior high school librarians, make $400,000 in cuts to the district's music program and shift nearly $700,000 in vice principal salaries onto school budgets.

The board also must decide whether to scale back kindergarten class-size reduction efforts, which call for a ratio of 20 students to one teacher.

These are among the hard choices facing the school district.

"We had no real choice other than to respond in a fiscally accountable way, to say we've got to get geared up for this," Superintendent Arturo Flores said Thursday. "We made a serious attempt to keep cuts away from the classroom."

Modesto must approve its budget by June 30, even if a state budget is not completed. The proposed cuts represent about 5 percent of the district's budget, school board member Gary Lopez said.

Chief business official Debbe Bailey said the cuts most likely won't be the last in light of California's looming budget shortfall.

"When you have to do $12 million in cuts, there's nothing left to cut on the outside edges," Bailey said. "I don't see it getting any better. If it gets much worse, I don't see how schools stay open."

Barney Hale, executive director of the Modesto Teachers Association, said the proposals put 53 positions represented by his union at risk, including junior high librarians, school nurses and kindergarten teachers. The district must give layoff warnings to teachers by March 15. Modesto City Schools sent a memo last week asking employees to step forward if they can voluntarily reduce their workday or workyear.

"I think this is just scare tactics on the part of this district," Hale said. "It's going to affect kids; it's going to affect schedules; it's going to have an impact on the community."

School districts around the state are preparing for a worst-case scenario after Gov. Schwarzenegger in January proposed slashing $4.8 billion in aid to school districts over 18 months.

Among the proposed cuts announced by area school districts:

Salida Union School District officials are looking to cut $1.7 million from the 2008-2009 budget. District officials plan on laying off 17 people, Superintendent Antonio Borba said Thursday. Officials also will reduce administrative staff and classified employee work hours.

Patterson Joint Unified School District said it is freezing spending on all nonessential materials and might cut 30 positions. A memo to district administrators and staff outlined proposed reductions of about $1.66 million from a budget of $28 million.

Merced City School District Superintendent Terry Brace said about 40 district workers could receive pink slips by next month to avoid a $3 million budget shortfall.

In Modesto City Schools, Brad Barker and three other junior high librarians could lose their jobs.

He's worked at Mark Twain Junior High School since 1987. Barker said there's been a credentialed librarian at Mark Twain since the school opened in 1951.

"When I first came here, there was a lime green carpet, plastic chairs, no computers and gaps in the shelves," said Barker, who has written columns in The Bee's editorial section. "I've spent 20 years of my adult life filling this place up. I'm a little protective of it."

Now, he estimates his collection tops 16,000 books. He gives lectures to children on the geology of the Grand Canyon and the medieval architecture of Paris. Barker keeps a file of the notes written by students he finds stuffed in the pages of library books -- marked "for your eyes only" and "confidential" -- and turns them into spelling and grammar lessons and the occasional study of the "love battlefield" of Mark Twain Junior High.

"It's really upsetting. It's incredible to me," science teacher Tommie Stedman said of the proposed librarian cuts. "A lot of my students are so turned off by books, but Mr. Barker will find an exciting book that relates to the boring textbooks we have to use in class."

The Modesto City Schools Board of Education will discuss and vote on the program and staff reductions at a special meeting Tuesday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at

425 Locust St.

Bee staff writer Michelle Hatfield and the Merced Sun-Star contributed to this report.

Bee staff writer Merrill Balassone can be reached at mbalassone@modbee.com or 578-2337.