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Mammoth Lakes, CA
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Friday, August 29, 2008
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MUSD learning to juggle under difficult financial constraints |
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Thursday, 14 February 2008 |
By Stacey Powells
Mammoth Times Staff Writer
 Mammoth High School Principal Mike Agnitch discusses the pros and many cons of having a Drivers' Education class as a graduation requirement.PHOTO BY STACEY POWELLS
According to Mammoth High School Principal Mike Agnitch, Health classes and Drivers' Education classes are both requirements for graduation and both are split during a semester at 10 weeks each.
“Ten weeks to cover the entire curriculum for Health is not feasible,” Agnitch said. He is requesting that Drivers' Education no longer be a graduation requirement but an elective in the tenth grade. “Students will still receive Drivers' Education because they need it in order to get their license but we are doing the students a disservice by not giving them a full semester of health,” Agnitch said. The Board agreed that Drivers' Education should remain available for students who want to take it as an elective. “Drivers' Education isn’t readily available in our community like it is in the cities,” said Board member Joe Bottom. The Board approved keeping Drivers' Education as an elective.
State budget cuts slice into MUSD
The Superintendents' symposium was held in Monterey last week, and California school superintendents in attendance, including Mammoth Unified School District Superintendent Mike DeRisi, were told to expect a 10.78 percent reduction all around in the schools because of budget cuts sent down by the state. Superintendent DeRisi has asked all his principals to see where they can cut costs within their schools.
MUSD Business Manager Jim Maxey thinks at the end of next year there will be a statewide deficit of $14.5 billion dollars. “Through Prop 58 the governor [Arnold Schwarzenegger] has declared a fiscal emergency,” he said. [Prop 58, which passed by 71.1 percent in the March 2, 2004 election, allows the Governor of California to proclaim a fiscal emergency in specified circumstances, and submit proposed legislation to address the fiscal emergency, and requires the Legislature to stop other action and act on legislation proposed to address the emergency.]
The deficit statewide is caused by revenue shortfalls and in his proposal, Governor Schwarzenegger has called for cuts in education. He is proposing a $4 billion dollar cut in education during the 08-09 school year, as well as the suspension of Prop 98* and a $9.1 billion dollar general obligation bond. MUSD will be affected on several levels. Class size reduction will take a hit, special education will lose, meal plans for low income students will be slashed and the availability of instruction materials, which are already scarce because of costs, will be even harder to get. “The net effect for us will be between 120-150 thousand dollars for next year because the district is a Basic Aide District,” Maxey said. “It is a shame that this government doesn’t put education first and we will pay for it somewhere down the line,” Bottom added.
New high school on the “baby step” track
The Facilities Steering committee is working with the Town of Mammoth Lakes under a collaborative method to get the best facility possible. The committee is looking at the possibility of high school property to be part of the South Gateway Project Plan so the school becomes an integral part of the community instead of all unto itself. “We are exploring ways we can collaborate and ways we can be within the community at large,” said MUSD Board member Greg Newbry,
The Board is moving forward with a contract for services for Caldwell Flores Winters (CFW), which is acting as the District's consultant and financial advisor on all bond offerings regarding the building of a new high school facility. The architectural agency, NTDStichler, has prepared a Letter of Authorization to proceed for the high school Master Plan and elementary school Master Plan. If, however, the findings of the work done by CFW prove to be negative, the MUSD Board has the option to stop all movement in the direction of building a new and much needed high school facility.
Special Ed classes moving from County to District
Developing a plan with SELPA (Special Education Local Plan Area) to transfer the service of special education (Special Day Class) from the Mono County Office of Education (MCOE) to the MUSD was put back on the table. Since the last meeting when the Board seemed to be caught by surprise with the announcement of this move, much more information has been supplied, thereby answering the many unanswered questions about the transfer.
Even though most school districts in the state are responsible for their special education classes, questions were raised regarding the financial burden this will have on the District. “What this transfer will do is take away any opportunity to add to our reserve,” Maxey said. “It will be difficult to amass a 15-18 percent reserve as we had hoped when this transfer takes place,” he continued.
“The responsibility of special education is really a district issue, not a county issue,” DeRisi said.Now the District has to decide how it wants to handle the transfer financially and how to best serve the children and teachers in the District who are involved in special education.
MUSD member Joe Bottom brought up the issue of the parcel tax and whether or not it can offset the financial hits the District will be facing down the road. “We are going to have to make some tough decisions down the line in light of this transition,” Bottom said.
If the MUSD authorizes the plan for the transfer of services for special education from MCOE to the MUSD to be implemented by Superintendent DeRisi, and the three Mono County superintendents decide not to vote on absorbing the Special Education for this year, then the MCOE will bill the MUSD for everything it continues to be responsible for in Special Education. To help with the transition, which will eventually happen regardless of what the Board decides, MCOE will offer the MUSD $350,000 annually for two years if the transition happens sooner rather than later. If the transition doesn’t happen this year, MUSD will not receive help from the MCOE. The MCOE will continue to be the Authorization Unit and keep Designated Instruction Services. “The transfer allows principals to have oversight of the special education programs,” said MCOE Superintendent Catherine Hiatt. “It’s much better for the students and the teachers when the principals are directly involved in the special education programs.”
The Board voted to authorize the superintendent to enter into an agreement to develop a plan with the SELPA to transfer service of special education from MCOE to the MUSD.
*While the formulas get rather complicated at times, the goal of Proposition 98 is a relatively straightforward one. Generally, Proposition 98 provides K-14 schools with a guaranteed funding source that grows each year with the economy and the number of students. The guaranteed funding is provided through a combination of state General Fund and local property tax revenues. The constitution allows state officials to temporarily reduce education funding below the minimum guarantee under two conditions. One is when the state's General Fund revenues grow less than personal income. The other is when two-thirds of the legislature votes to suspend the guarantee for
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 21 February 2008 )
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Copyright © 2008 The Mammoth Times All Rights Reserved
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