Modesto schools will try to cut $12M

Kindergarten class size, music programs considered

By MERRILL BALASSONE
BEE STAFF WRITER

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Nearly $12 million in budget cuts for the upcoming school year will be on the table tonight at a special meeting of the Modesto City Schools Board of Education.

The board will decide whether to increase the student-to-counselor ratio at the high schools, make $400,000 in cuts to music programs and increase kindergarten class sizes as the district copes with losing students and anticipates deep cuts in state education funding.

Barney Hale, executive director of the Modesto Teachers Association, said the proposals put 53 positions represented by his union at risk.

Modesto Bee - Mark Twain Junior High School librarian Brad Barker and three of his peers could lose their jobs under the planned cuts.

PDF: Modesto City Schools special meeting agenda, reports
POSSIBLE REDUCTIONS

Faced with cutting its budget by $12 million, here are some ways Modesto City Schools officials might trim back:
- Cut K-12 music program: $400,000
- Reduce K-12 district nurse positions: $320,308
- Eliminate four junior high librarians, cut high school librarian hours and stipends: $236,908
- Scale back kindergarten class-size reduction: $697,500
- Reduce school allocations -- mostly library books and athletic transportation: $236,098
- Travel budget (50 percent cut): $250,000
- Reduce district administration budget: $200,000
- Eliminate junior high cheerleading programs: $31,000
- Skip yearly contribution toward school bus and maintenance truck replacement: $275,000
- Shift funding for vice principal salaries from district budget to school budgets: $693,023
- Reduce K-12 AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) funding: $117,872
- Eliminate high school cheerleading uniforms (except school T-shirt and shorts): $79,000
- High school counselor ratio increased from 520:1 to 625:1: $383,975
Total cuts proposed: $11.98 million

Source: Modesto City Schools
AT A GLANCE
- ISSUE: Modesto City Schools said it must trim its budget by $12 million, or about 5 percent, because of declining enrollment and state budget cuts.
- WHY IT'S IMPORTANT: Junior high librarians, music programs and other staff and services could be eliminated in the school district, which serves 31,000 students.
- WHAT'S NEXT: The Modesto City Schools Board of Education will discuss and vote on the program and staff reductions at a special meeting Tuesday at 6 p.m.

District nurses, kindergarten teachers and junior high librarians may be laid off, Hale said.

Terri Foster, whose daughter participates in Modesto High's band program, said she plans to speak against the cuts tonight.

"(Music) has just been a lifesaver for her," Foster said Friday. "The music itself helps children process and concentrate and focus. It helps their grades."

School nurse Kathleen Holmberg said in an e-mail that the $320,308 in proposed cuts affecting school nurses would put children in serious jeopardy.

"Children who have chronic or acute health care needs have a right to an education," she wrote. "It is dangerous for the school district to ignore the appropriate care of these children while they are in school all day."

The Modesto City Schools Board of

Education will hold a special public meeting to discuss and vote on the budget cuts from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at 425 Locust St.

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