Local Schools Celebrate End of Debt with State Schools Chief

California's top education official, Tom Torlakson, will attend a special local ceremony Friday, to celebrate early repayment of the long-standing state debt owed by the West Contra Costa Unified School District and thus remove a heavy financial burden that has crippled the district for the past 21 years.

By paying off the debt, the district will also be freed from oversight by a state trustee and $1.4 million in annual debt payments.

Last August, Richmond City Councilman Tom Butt reported "explosive financial news" on his e-mail forum that the district by tapping its $9 million Debt Service Account, which had been required by the trustee, to pay off the remaining $9 million of the original $35 million loan.

Butt said the strategy, which required Torlakson's approval, was developed by the school board, led by Charles Ramsey, and district Superintendent Bruce Harter.

Torkakson, the state Superintendent of Public Instruction, approved the idea, and is receiving the check this week, the district said. Torlakson had earlier assisted the district in getting more favorable terms on the loan during his eight years in the state Senate, when he represented the district.

A ceremony with Torlakson to mark the repayment will be held Friday, 10:30-11 a.m., in the front courtyard of the newly rebuilt Ford Elementary School at 2711 Maricopa Ave. in Richmond, the district announced. 

"We're finally going to pay off the state loan," Harter said to hearty applause at an . "The loan goes back 21 years ..., and we're going to have a big celebration. We'll be free of the state trustee and free of that state oversight that's been around for so many years."

The heavy burden was imposed after the district, then called the Richmond Unified School District, filed for bankruptcy in 1991 and moved to close the schools. Butt and other parents sued the state in Butt v. State of California saying it was obligated to provide an education to students in a districts that was failing. 

The state Supreme Court upheld the suit and ruled that the state must keep the schools open, but, according to Butt, the method adopted by the state – the loan – was "a vindictive and punitive financial burden imposed by the losers, in this case former Governor Pete Wilson."