Letter to the Editor: Local Schools Again Face the Precipice

The word "forced" is the most accurate representation of what our board and boards throughout the state are confronted with following years of draconian cuts from the state and threats of even larger cuts in the future. 

The decisions that will be made in the next few weeks by our state legislators, governor and voters will likely determine whether or not our state recognizes not only the importance of education, but the value of education, and the need to protect this critical asset. While the political arena debates whether or not California’s tax burden is appropriate, California public schools, which are dependent on state funding, are amongst the lowest funded school systems in the nation. 

The most recent data available shows that per-pupil spending in California ranks 47^th out of 50. If the Las Virgenes School District were to receive just the “average” funding level provided nationwide, our community’s schools and students would realize a $23 million boost to the programs and services offered. 

Our board, working collaboratively with all stakeholders, has managed to delay what is seemingly the inevitable confrontation between insufficient resources and our mission to provide a world-class education for every child who attends our schools. The $10 million that LVUSD has lost in state funding over the past three years has been mitigated through careful management of one-time federal monies, significant reductions in administration and restructuring of traditional programs into more innovative 21st century models. 

Although the cuts have been painful, they have spurred creative thinking and out of the box solutions resulting in experimentation with new ways to deliver instruction, more utilization of technology, and re-purposing of under-utilized facilities.

Despite the challenges presented by these previous budget cuts, our educational offerings and achievements have expanded. At the elementary level, families can choose a dual-immersion foreign language program, a Waldorf–inspired school and a global and community-awareness school; and at the secondary level, the options for students now include an International Baccalaureate program and a Media and Technology Academy.  Our schools continue to win state and national honors in music and our graduates are accepted at the most prestigious universities in the country.

Unfortunately, all of these efforts oftentimes work against the very goal they're designed to promote – high quality public schools. Because staff members and parent groups have worked tirelessly to protect innovative, successful programs and find creative alternatives, the enormity of the potential crisis facing our schools is either not understood or not believed. The fact is, school districts have been cut more than any other public agency in the state during the past three years. 

The future is even more problematic. In the absence of an extension of current tax rates as proposed by the governor, school districts, along with other public services, will face even larger cuts in 2011/12 as the state legislature tries to put their own house in order. This creates the potential for additional budget cuts of a magnitude, which will rob us of the ability to deliver the quality education that our community expects and students deserve. 

These additional cuts can only be achieved by reductions in the number of days in the school year and/or by increasing class sizes by cutting the number of teachers. Our local legislators, State Sen. Fran Pavley and Assembly Member Julia Brownley, are helping to lead the fight to protect our local schools against this eventuality. 

What can you do? On a statewide basis, educate relatives and friends in other assembly and senate districts and urge them to contact their legislators to protect schools from further cuts. Locally, please donate to our district’s Save Our Schools campaign to enable our board to rescind as many layoffs as possible by our May 15 deadline. If you’ve already donated, thank you. If you have yet to donate, please visit our Web site at www.lvusd.org and make your contribution to keep our schools a valuable asset to the community and, more importantly, protect the future for our children. We welcome your suggestions and questions.

Join us as we continue to do “great things for kids.”

Donald M. Zimring, Ph.D.

Superintendent

Las Virgenes Unified School District