Parents' Club Will 'Buy Back' Some Furlough Days for 2012-13 School Year

The 2012-13 instructional calendar for Piedmont schools shows five furlough days — cost-cutting days when schools are shut down and staff members are unpaid — but at least two and perhaps three of those days will be "bought back" with hefty contributions from the district's Parent Clubs and other sources.

The Associated Parent Clubs of Piedmont (APT) has raised and set aside enough money to pay the $90,000 per day cost of district operations for two days and has a $30,000 head start on paying for a third, board members learned Wednesday night.

PUSD Superintendent Constance Hubbard told board members it's likely that the district will be able to fund a third day through a combination of additional parent donations and grants.

The board agreed with Hubbard's recommendations to "buy back" Aug. 20, 2012, a professional development day for teachers when students will not attend class, and March 20, 2013, a regular school day.

If enough money is available for a third day, it will be Oct. 8, 2012, another regular school day. Two scheduled professional development furlough days, Nov. 1 and 2, will remain unfunded.

PUSD first instituted furlough days for the current school year as a cost-cutting measure. Furlough days are considered an alternative to teacher and staff layoffs in the face of reduced state funding for local schools in recent years.

Board members also heard a combination of good and bad news on state funding for the district. For the current academic year, a mid-year cut estimated at about a quarter-million dollars will be only $40,000, district staff said.

But Gov. Jerry Brown's recently released 2012-13 budget proposal could result in huge cuts for school districts if California voters don't pass a school funding measure on the November 2012 ballot, they said. For the PUSD, the decrease in state funding could range from $433 to $800 per student.

In that case, the district could most likely "squeak by" in 2012-13, but could find itself forced to lay off teachers and staff for the 2013-14 school year.