Budget FAQ

If teachers get consolidated, does that mean there will be massive "bumping" from school to school?

Human Resources will be disseminating very detailed guidelines about the consolidation process and potential school t school movement of personnel. We are anticipating a much higher occurrence of what people refer to as "bumping" which is going to be largely influenced by seniority, credentials, and subject matter need/demand.

I heard that there will be no professional development office next year. Is this true?

This is not true. While the Academics and Professional development Division will suffer reductions and cutbacks, as well as central office departments, professional development support to sites will continue. APD as a division will still exist, although there may be a need for redesign of services and staff responsibilities and roles. - Francisca Sanchez

Will there be layoffs of staff due to the budget crisis? If so, what are the projected numbers for certificated and classified employees? How far back into tenure will these layoffs go?

Human Resources is currently working on these details and their recommendation has not been approved by Carlos or the Board so we have to wait a little longer before we can make this public. It appears as though there is absolutely no way to avoid layoffs and pink slips and understand that in order to be compliant with Ed Code we do have to over-identify potential layoffs by the March 15th deadline to be on the safe side. 

Given that we have one day per year for professional development, it seems like a poor choice to spend it talking about the budget. While I understand that this is an important issue for all teachers and staff to discuss, it seems like a more appropriate time would be a faculty meeting or a union meeting. The LEAD office has sent out materials for suggested PD, and many sites have designed their own agendas. I can't imagine a better way to undermine a pd session than starting out with "there will be layoffs, and we probably won't fund PD anymore." How can sites carry forward the important work outlined in our BSCs if we do not use our limited PD time effectively? Can somebody please explain why Carlos would recommend spending January 29th talking about the budget cuts (which are still undetermined) rather than closing the achievement gap and improving our schools?

This is Kevin and I should probably be the one to respond to this question. My thinking was that after Carlos spoke to the executive team of UESF last week and then spoke to principals on Tuesday the 26th, talked about it at the Board meeting that evening which we knew would be in the paper and on the news the next day, it would be too difficult to NOT address the news of the budget. I felt that if teachers knew a discussion was coming in the afternoon, they could hold off till then and focus on the PD in the morning sessions.

I am a strong believer in the absolute critical need for more PD and certainly not less. I want you to spend as much time as you can on assessing the implementation of your BSCs and also to ensure that you are building asset-based practices in your school, BUT if there is an elephant in the room that you cannot see around, you must address it. IF you can get your faculty to focus on the PD and hold off on budget discussions and questions - all the power to you! I say go full steam ahead on the PD and have a budget discussion at a faculty meeting in the coming weeks.

The budget discussion for the afternoon of the 29th was a suggestion - not a mandate - and it came from me - not Carlos. Sorry, I miscommunicated that.

What is the 3rd third?

Kevin again....

The Public Education Enrichment Fund (Prop H) is divided up into thirds. The 1st 3rd goes to support Pre-School for All and the First Five Initiative, the 2nd 3rd goes to SLAM - Sports, libraries, arts and music, the 3rd 3rd is the portion of the ballot measure that the district has discretion over and can utilize as it sees the greatest need. We have used this money for LSPs, content specialists, security, etc. We will exercise our discretion of this 3rd 3rd funding and use to offset the deficit. No, that does NOT necessarily mean that "all LSPs are gone." The services that will be reduced as part of our 3rd 3rd discretion will be specified very soon.

If our school is already at capacity, and in some grade levels over capacity, increasing class size in K-3 does not mean adding more students, it means having fewer teachers. As a K-8 school, we would have to do it that way or we're looking at 50 students per class in 5th and 6th grades and above. So my question is, how will this dovetail with the teacher consolidation process, since obviously, we'll have to consolidate K-3 teachers?

The Class Size increase work group has met twice to prepare specific guidance for schools in this area. You will not have class sizes of 40 at 4th and 5th. We are also going to be defining class size enrollment versus school capacity. If you are a school with a specific challenge like the one stated here, you should send an email to Kevin Truitt and we will personally conduct a simulation with your school and show you the next two years of class size and capacity as per our recommendation for your specific site. Expect instructions and district guidelines in the next week or so.

Our school depends upon significant additional funding from the district for staffing (Prop H, SB 1802, PPS 150 & Violence Prevention funds). When will we know how these allocations to sites will be affected by the budget crisis?

We will try to provide as much information as possible, including about these and other centrally budgeted resources, by the time preliminary school budget allocations are provided -- hopefully by February 20th.   

-Myong

If our school is already at capacity, and in some grade levels over capacity, increasing class size in K-3 does not mean adding more students, it means having fewer teachers. As a K-8 school, we would have to do it that way or we're looking at 50 students per class in 5th and 6th grades and above. So my question is, how will this dovetail with the teacher consolidation process, since obviously, we'll have to consolidate K-3 teachers?

The implications of possible increases in class size to 25 will play out differently in each site depending on the number of K's, 1's, and 2's that currently exist and the enrollment at each grade. We are actually working out some simluations here at central office with some actual school site numbers to see how and and under what conditoions this leads to reducing the FTEs at the site and/or causes future complications. In your scenario you describe forcing grades 5 and 6 to be at a class size of 50. We will not let that happen and will need to take a closer look at your school. Kevin Truitt is going to lead a Class Size Work Group along with Nancy Waymack and Darlene Lim. We are going to examine some simulations and also give guidance and direction to schools with respect to capacity, consolidations and "splits", etc. Your Asst. Superintendent or school supervisor in LEAD will be giving you updates on this soon and also asking for volunteers that want to be part of this work group. If you would like us to do a simulation for your school, let your Asst. Supt. or school supervisor know. Thanks, Kevin

If central office personnel and other administrators around the district get pink slips, how likely is it that administrators on one year contracts get bumped?

Central Office staff do not have site administrator contracts meaning that central office staff would not "bump" site administrators based on seniority. This will not happen. The site administrators who are up for contract renewal will be considered for their contract renewal based on their performance evaluation as described in each administrator's Leadership Action Plan. That being said, for site administrator positions that must be opened for participation in the site interview process, we are strongly encouraging our colleagues with administrative credentials who may be concerned about the status of their central office position to apply for a site leadership position. We are going to attempt to be as liberal as possible with these site interviews by including all sites who did not yet have the site interview experience. In the past, we exercised some discretion and waived the process if the SSC deemed it unnecessary because they were very satisfied with the current administration.  If you are a current site administrator whose contract is up for renewal and you have any questions, please contact your LEAD Office supervisor. If you are a central office administrator and have any questions about site opportunities, please do not hesitate to contact the LEAD Office. - Kevin Truitt

Will the district support QEIA for the next few years, or is there a possibility that QEIA support will end?

Yes, QEIA schools will continue to be supported with state funds, and the regulations regarding QEIA will continue to be in effect. 

-Myong

For which funding sources (e.g. EIA-SCE, EIA-LEP, WSF, Prop H, WSF/SPED) will unused funds carry over to next year, and for which will unused funds be assumed by the district?

Each school’s unspent non-personnel balances in the following resources will be carried over into final budgets for SY 2010-11:  Arts, Music & PE Supplies and Equipment Block Grant (Resource 06761), School and Library Improvement Block Grant (Resource 07950), Discretionary Block Grant (Resource 07960), and Instructional Materials, Library Materials, and Educational Technology Block Grant (Resource 07980). 

Unspent balances in several other site-based resources (such as EIA) will be pooled and reallocated to school sites in the fall. 

-Myong

Are we supposed to be writing a new academic plan/bsc based on the new budget? If so, when?

BSC question...Kevin again. As I stated in the packet that you already received - you will NOT be required to write NEW STRATEGIC ACTIONS this year aligned to the budget. You are going to submit your preliminary budget in the spring being "mindful" of the actions specified in your BSC and your current state of implementation, but without the updated version, the two programs (BSC and Budget) are still not meshed into one program. As soon as IT can deliver to us a new version of what will use for the BSCs, the sites will be trained, but because you have not received it by now, you cannot be expected to write anything "new" this year. That being said, the BSC is a living document so you can go in anytime and modify it if during the implementation you realize that things have changed or due to the budget deficit you have to rethink what you can support. 

Why does this web page say that answers will be provided by Myong Leigh and Richard Carranza ("to ensure consistency of messaging"), but then all the answers come from Kevin Truitt?

Speaking of...Kevin again....Originally, Ben Glazer and I set this up so that Richard and Myong would answer the questions. If the questions are about the budget, then yes Richard and Myong should answer them, BUT if it has to do with professional development, BSC, class size - I have been asked by Richard and Myong to respond. Also, Myong and Richard are very busy and I want you to have responses in case you need them by Friday. I will send another email out and clarify that occassionally I will have to answer some of the questions.

In our presentation this afternoon, we were shown the first slides which outlined the initial district budget numbers. This included a change in Federal money to SFUSD from approx. $27 million to approx. $529 thousand. How and when did this cut occur?

The significant decrease reflects that one-time State Fiscal Stabilization Funds, the largest component of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (a.k.a., federal stimulus), will not be received after FY 2009-10.  This has been anticipated since the ARRA funds were first allocated, so this is not coming as a new surprise. 

-Myong

When furlough days are discussed, is the Superintendent talking about furloughs for all employees including classroom teachers or just non classroom positions? If teachers are to take furlough days, is there an idea of when those would be? Could we scrap the early start plan for next year and make the first X # of days the furlough days? Would there be a promise of repayment if/when possible?

The furlough days would be applied to all employees.  We are exploring options, such as delaying the early start (i.e., moving closer to what has been the traditional start date) and eliminating instructional days the Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving week.  The effect of furlough days would be to decrease the number of paid service days, creating a one-time (as opposed to permanent) decrease in salary for each corresponding decrease in work days. 

-Myong

Will the Prop-A funded teacher raises be touched? What about the "bonuses" for 5 and 8 years of services? Thank you.

At this time we do not anticipate changes to the Prop A-funded adjustments to the base salary schedule or retention bonuses.  However, if step and column increases are frozen, this would most likely apply to the Prop A-funded salary differentials as well (i.e., a teacher at a given step would have their Prop A-funded salary differential remain at the same level.)  We are still analyzing options about this and will keep everyone posted. 

-Myong

In slide 13 there are 6.43 million in cuts in unrestricted general fund. Is this WSF money that will be directed at schools? If not, what services will be cut to generate this savings?

The $6.43 million is a preliminary target for Unrestricted General Fund budget cuts.  We are trying to avoid cutting the Weighted Student Formula in identifying these cuts.  Please stay tuned for future updates about the specific cuts that will make up this amount. 

-Myong

Please give SSC summit details: date, time, location

The School Site Council/Community Summit will be held on Saturday, Feb. 20th, from 9-12 at Everett Middle School. Flyers have been distributed to schools. If they are not available in your front office, please request that they be made available. Thank you.

When will we receive our school budgets?

We hope to distribute preliminary school budgets on or around February 20th.  One caveat is that to the extent budget allocations depend on negotiations with UESF, the timing of those conversations could have an impact on the schedule for determining budgets. 

-Myong

Please explain the process for getting expeniditures approved.

A very special memo detailing the Budget Freeze was sent electronically to all administrators on Friday, February 5th. Along with the memo, there is a form requesting special approval. If you have any questions, please contact your school supervisor at the LEAD Office.

As a new assistant principal who was given responsibility for a very large school's budget, what support can you offer me or others in my position? I feel that my school will suffer from my lack of experience and support as we go forward from here. So far, I have received no comprehensive training from the District (although individuals I have sought out have been helpful).

We suggest you contact Reeta Madhavan or the budget analyst assigned to your school for technical assistance about site budgeting issues.  You can also contact Nancy Waymack or me if you need additional help. 

-Myong

Please explain how K resolutions will be handled now.

Good question. If your K is funded by a special grant and NOT a Tier III funding source and the service is part of the grant, then you should be fine. If you are using funds that are now "frozen", you will have to request special approval through your school site supervisor or assistant superintendent. The best thing to do is before you agree to contract for services, call you supervisor immediately and get a pre-approval. Remember that the service needs to be "critical" and not simply "desired."

Many programs were started in years past with the idea that teachers will be supported in their efforts. For instance, now all 9th graders were expected to be at least in Algebra 1, despite the fact that many of them have not mastered their middle school (let alone elementary school) standards. Money was available for smaller 9th grade class sizes as well as for support classes. Now that all of the support seems to be disappearing, will you still be forcing all 9th graders into large Algebra 1 classes with no extra support?

This is a great question, but I am afraid I do not have the best answer right now. We are all going to be asked to do more with less. I guess that is going to be our unfortunate reality for the next couple years. There are a number of programs that were aligned to support and now it appears highly likely that many of the support programs and personnel will not be funded. With respect to the Algebra issue. We are not modifying the district recommended practices. We will still be requesting the middle schools have assessments in place that ensure that all students who are ready for Algebra in the 8th grade be given this opportunity. APD and RPA worked out very specific policy procedures for the placement of incoming 9th grade students with respect to the course identification of Algebra or Geometry. With respect to class size in the 9th grade for Algebra, we have not specified the class size yet but we cannot go too high because the state reimburses in percentages based on how close you are to the desired class sizes. In other words, the higher we go here, the less revenue we will receive. As far as "no extra support" for the Algebra classes, I am unclear as to what the "extra support" looks like now because I am unaware of specific funding supporting success in algebra that might be cut. If you know of a program or support structure that aims to ensure student success in the 9th grade with Algebra and are concerned about cuts in these supports, please contact Margaret Chiu or Bill Sanderson for specific details.

What will happen to teacher's retirement if there are furlough days? Will there be some way to make up the time to receive a full year's credit?

We are allowed to have up to five furlough days and still be counted for a full year of service for retirement.

Regarding this item: "K-3 Class Size to 25 (Temporary Increase for 2 years)" which was presented in the Labor Contract Savings section, at $4million savings per school year, is this the only specified cut that would result in classroom teacher layoffs?

There will be class size increases at the high school level also, particularly in 9th and 10th grade which would result in some reductions in personnel. Perhaps the biggest factor here is that in years past schools had greater flexibility to control class size by adding sections within their own Master Schedule and of course funding additional sections. School site budget reductions are not going to allow this flexibility or at least not to the level that we have experienced so schools will be forced to actually close sections when the class size falls below a specific threshold. Those sections that will now be closed do add up within a school and also cumulative from school to school resulting in personnel reductions.

Is there really a hiring freeze? The WAD has a call for applicants for new administrators. This makes me nervous, as an administrator expecting a pink slip. Can you explain?

There is a hiring freeze directly connected to the budget freeze. Current open positions will not be filled and departments have been directed to sweep these funds and delineate the services from unfilled positions to existing employees in that department. In some cases, the position is essential, so exceptions will be made. As we do every year, the WAD notices the application process for site administrator positions. We do NOT anticipate a reduction in the site administrator positions because they are funded with respect to a funding formula and we have already discussed administrative position reductions with the schools we know of who have been considering this. - Kevin Truitt

If we had money approved for something already, but decide not to spend it in light of the budget cuts, can we transfer that money to a different program area? (For example, we had travel money approved, but we need to buy paper instead. Can we tranfer it, or do we just lose it if we don't travel?)

You can transfer these funds to get supplies but do it quick and PLEASE remember to complete the budget freeze exemption request form. When you fill out the exemption form, PLEASE include as many details as possible. Try to answer any question that anyone may have with respect to the request so that your school supervisor has the necessary information to defend and approve the request.

Where are the questions posted earlier? I do not see mine. I will post it again: How many layoff notices will the district send out? How far back in seniority will they go?

HR is working out the details of determining the seniority threshold for potential layoffs, but HR's recommendations have not been approved by Carlos and the Board yet to be made public. It should be noted that the seniority factor for reducing staff is directly linked to the number of retirements we have confirmed and that data is also unknown at this time. The fewer people retiring the higher up in the seniority rankings the potential layoffs will affect.