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Home :: Discover EGUSD :: Superintendent :: Superintendent's Message
The State of California’s budget crisis needs to be addressed quickly. Each day we wait to hear news that our state government has put aside its partisanship and come to a consensus on a solution to the largest deficit in the state’s history.
From a school district perspective, the information as to how the state’s budget may impact our schools seems to change dramatically from week to week.
The state currently faces an approximate $42 billion deficit over the next 18 months, according to the Governor, legislators and Legislative Analyst’s Office. On New Year’s Eve, the Governor’s office rolled out the annual January budget proposal. School districts use this proposal to begin to build their budgets for the following school year. While it may be months before the Governor submits a revised budget or the legislature takes final action, we must begin to make preparations now.
The state’s public education funding process demands that school districts comply with several legally required timelines. These include the notification of certificated staff of possible layoffs by March 15. Final certificated staffing actions must be made by May 15. Classified staff must be given a 45-day notice. The Board of Education must adopt the district’s final budget for 2009-2010 by June 30. That adoption also includes a budget projection for the following two fiscal years, 2010-2011 and 2011-2012. Due to these requirements, school districts must take action based on the best known current information which is at this time incomplete and volatile. The state’s budget is often not adopted and signed by the Governor until well beyond the statutory requirement of July 1. This past year the budget wasn’t signed until September.
Based on what the Governor has proposed and the legislature’s inaction at the time of this writing, Elk Grove Unified School District faces an approximate 16 percent deficit from the state’s revenue limit. In order to balance our budget we will face major cuts, as well as exhaust our reserves. Based on the most current information available, if the proposed budget is approved, EGUSD must make $15 million in cuts to one-time funding this year, 2008-2009. In 2009-2010, we would need to make about $26 million in ongoing cuts and an additional $24 million in ongoing cuts in 2010-2011.
These cuts will follow a year in which we have already cut $12.5 million from the 2008-2009 budget and eliminated 64 positions. This year we are faced with the added complication of not knowing how much flexibility the state will provide school districts in how we allocate categorical dollars.
The district has a budget committee, comprised of 60 representatives, who are working diligently to identify possible cuts that will enable us to submit a state-mandated balanced budget. We are an educational enterprise brought to fruition by people. As such, I believe a goal we all share is to forgo “things” in order to keep as many people as possible in the delivery of our work. I will not replace a tattered textbook when the trade-off is saving an individual who makes a difference in the lives of our students.
In addition to these discussions surrounding potential reductions, we are also exploring ways to enhance revenue and operate even more efficiently. Examples of these efforts are the implementation of an energy management program and finding ways to provide services in even more economic ways.
Should you have ideas about what we should consider as we move through this budget process, I encourage you to forward your ideas by going to our Budget Watch website. We will provide updates on the district’s Budget Watch webpage as they become available.
We must plan for the worst case scenario and hope for the best. Please know that I, along with our district finance staff, monitor the financial crisis on a daily basis and are involved in on-going discussions regarding the recommendations that will go before our Board of Education. Further, I have written to our legislators and will continue to urge them to resolve this budget crisis quickly.
It is a travesty that students in California reside in a state in which public education is funded far below the national average and has received, in my opinion, disproportionate budget cuts both in the past and currently. Our students now face even greater reductions in the funding of their educational experiences. These are tough times. While we work to address this financial crisis, we need to remind everyone that our students are the future of California.
Steven M. Ladd, Ed.D.
Superintendent
Superintendent's Archived
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