Banning School Board Candidates Asked to Discuss Their Budget Priorities

Candidates for the Banning Unified School District board were quizzed recently on how they would decide what is most important when putting together the district budget.

The seven hopefuls, Alfredo Andrade, Alex Cassadas, Ray Curtis, Deborah Dukes, Larry Ellis, Maxine Israel, and David Vanden Heuvel, are running for three seats on the district board in the Nov. 8 election.

The Oct. 16 forum at First Missionary Baptist Church was moderated by Banning teacher Troy Sheldon.

Sheldon asked the candidates a total of seven questions or prompts. For reports on the first five prompts and candidates' responses, click , , , , , and , or see the sidebar to the right of this report for links.

The seventh prompt was "As a board member, how would you prioritize in the building of the district budget?"

Cassadas, a child care worker, was selected to respond first:

"The main thing we have to focus on is exactly what benefits the children the most, the students in the classroom. And what the negative . . . in the classroom, and that's where we have to start making the cuts.

"That's the way how any school district should be . . . because the reason why we're here today is before the education and the success of our graduates . . . at Banning High School.

"One of the things we need to . . . is intensive programs. Because the government's putting out a lot of intensive programs. . . . Let's look at that and prioritize our budget based on efficiency.

"If we do like Mr. Curtis said, we start turning off our lights, or we get some new kind of solar panels in our area, we get grants for those, and that's what we need to work on, our grant writer, we can start making revenue and start making a profit, so we can actually put more money towards programs.

"We also need to focus our priority on focusing on the extracarricular activities. That's one of the main budget things that I would promote, because as a student I know that those are the things that I looked forward to, and which made me want to go to class.

"Because when a student is looking forward to going to the Glee Club or the Christian Club . . . like when I was in sixth grade, I wanted to go to school. I mean, you're happy and proud and want to wake up even if it's early in the morning. . . . it can actually help get our attendance up.

"That goes to what Mr. Bailey has been advocating for at the school board meetings.

"Our next priority is where's the fat? . . . If you cannot justify spending money on gasoline or certain people, if you can't justify it, there's no reason it should be there. You've got to trim that fat and you have to put that budget . . . towards things that are more important. . . .

"And then you have to listen to how can we focus our budget on the classified workers and the teachers because they're the ones who positively affect the students who are in the classroom.

"I know this firsthand because . . . I know what they go through, I know what the classified workers go through, because when they're not happy, then we're not happy.

"We need to work together and that's why I'm going to prioritize the budget on the students and make sure that everybody's taken care of."

Vanden Heuvel, a retired teacher, responded:

"I would start the budget with classroom teachers first. Not teachers. Classroom teachers. To make sure that we have, we don't have oversize classes for our children. My children. I have two children in the Banning school district right now.

"They're great teachers and good class situations at the elementary school, so there's not quite the problem, but it seems to be getting worse.

"After teachers, support personnel. Secretaries, drivers, custodians who are essential to us, to those who are teaching. They're essential. I would cut the administrative budget.

"We're declining school enrollment but administrators' enrollment seems to be going up. We don't need the same number of administrators as a school district with 40,000 students. We don't need that kind of a budget.

"I agree with the gentleman down at the end, Alex, we just met, and even with Mr. Curtis, we need to look at the budget. Item by item and see where the waste is.

"But two things: Cut the administrative budget and start school for middle school and high school students earlier and you're going to get increased revenue. It's like taxing billionaires. Get more money.

"Don't send us to divide what little we have into little weird pieces. Get more money. Find programs. ROTC, whatever. Morongo Indians, the Cahuilla Indians are offering stuff from the casinos.

"Find programs where our kids can get employment track opportunities. I'm done. You'll hear more from me later."

Ellis, a retired science teacher, responded:

"Yeah, prioritize. We have to do it and we have to have an open budget. Obviously we're here because of the students. If we didn't have any students, you know there wouldn't be anything to worry about.

"And we need to worry about our students. So it's critical that all the cuts and that, that need to be made, they need to be made in such a way that they have the least affect on our students.

"Extracarricular activities. I've always been involved with that, all through my 33 years at Banning High School. And I'm a strong proponent of it, and I'm sure that giving out . . . for that. It doesn't cost a lot. A lot of teachers do things for nothing, just because they love the program.

"I don't receive money for Envirothon or Solar Boat, and teachers are doing a lot of things, but they need the support. They need, someone mentioned, you know, you gotta have that 'Atta boy' attitude when you're going the extra yard.

"Obviously we've got to trim the fat and that. As far as being specific, I haven't seen the budget and that, and I'm sure it's going to be a long, drawn-out process, because that's what we're going to have to do.

"We don't have any choices. We have to deal within our means. Thank you."

Andrade, a "para educator" or paraprofessional school employee, responded:

"We have to set our priorities by starting with student choices. They are the soul of this mission.

"We have to make sure that whatever we do at the district we surround it around the students. After that we need teachers, we need custodians, we need administrative staff, working the offices, security making sure the campuses are secure . . .

"I don't think we need, you know, eight directors in such a small district. Administration needs to be cut down . . . to a . . . number. We have a lot of managers, we have a lot of in-house . . . administration.

"And then after that we need to create programs for our students. Everything is around our students."

Israel, a parent, responded:

"Well, it's already public knowledge that our administrators are one of the highest paid in the county . . . while our teachers are at the bottom.

"That tells me I'm going to start at the top and work my way down. And if that means, you know, if there's a pay that's coming my way? Sorry I don't want it. The kids can take it."

Curtis, a retired administrator, responded:

"We apologize because there will be cuts. But don't cut anything related to kids. . . . that is the teachers union, the classified union. It's going to be tough, and the situation hopefully will get better. But we need to take a look. . . . there's a perception out there that something's not right in Banning at the top office.

"And if that's the case, then that would be letting the community down. I'm sorry we are not . . . an area where we can be paying administrators over the standard in other districts larger than this district ADA, then something happened at the top with the people who are sitting on the board, that should not have happened.

"So what we're going to do, the three new people, we'll be coming in to fix that situation that came from past board members. So that's our challenge here. That if they are out of line as it appears to be that's going to be happen.

"It will be remedied in a professional manner."

Dukes, an incumbent Banning Unified School District board member and its current president, responded:

"Everybody keeps saying keep it as far away from the kids as possible. But everything touches the kids.

"From the janitors making trash runs up into H.R. director and the superintendent, everybody, everything affects our kids. And we spend on an average four and a half hours a night for three or four months going through the budget.

"The budget has been cut . . . we try to cut as much as we can out of the budget. All we do is ask everybody to give their fair share.

"There's an employee who just retired that was making $88,000, a hundred and two with benefits, that was not a teacher, and only had a high school education. Nobody underneath him, that they supervise.

"So I'm saying you don't just look at the administrators, I'm not pro-administrative, don't just look the teachers, I'm not anti-teacher. You look at the whole budget.

"And there's a lot of things, a lot of salaries there, that are not just administrators. That's not the only place that we can look. We look at the whole budget.

"And when we prioritize, it is in the students' best interest. . . . You can disagree if you like to, but once you get on the board and see that budget, you will see that it's not an easy thing, and it's not a one-night thing, and it's not Dr. Wallace just walking in, even though she has years and years of experience with the budget.

"We question her, we come back, and the next week come back in again, for four, five hours over the budget. So it's not simple, it's not easy. And everything is looked at."

The California School Employees Association, the classified school employees union that represents more than 210,000 school support staff in California, has endorsed Andrade, Cassadas and Curtis.

The Banning Teachers Association, the union that represents more than 200 teachers in the Banning Unified School District, has endorsed Cassadas, Curtis, and Ellis.

Banning Unified School District serves about 5,000 students in a 300-square-mile area, from kindergarten through 12th grade, according to the district's web site.

The district includes four elementary schools, two middle schools, one comprehensive high school, and one continuation high school.

Banning Unified is one of the largest employers in the San Gorgonio Pass, with about 450 employees.

The revised district budget as of Sept. 2, 2011, was between $35 million and $37 million, which included total projected revenues of $35,005,383, total projected expenditures of $36,717,196, and a deficit of $1,711,813, according to board meeting minutes.

The next scheduled forum starts at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 26, at , 1335 W. Ramsey St., Banning.

The to register to vote in the Nov. 8 election is 5 p.m. Monday Oct. 24.