Here are some real life examples...

Whether school districts are forced to eliminate class-size reduction and music, arts and sports programs, lay off teachers, classified employees and other staff , or eliminate basic supplies (like copy paper), this year’s budget cuts and bad economy are hurting our schools and students.

Below are just a few examples of responses received from school districts, teachers and parents when asked: how have the state budget cuts impacted students in the classroom, and what do more mid-year cuts mean for California’s future?

Torrance Unified School District:

The list would be a much shorter list if the question were: What has not been cut?

In the Torrance Unified School District, and because of the state’s budget crisis, in previous years we have cut as far away from the classroom as possible. Everything was frozen, cut or reduced. This year we are 38 teachers less than we were last year. I cannot overemphasize the negative impact that it has had on our instructional program due to huge class sizes. In addition, the health and safety of our students is more difficult to ensure when the correct number of personnel are not in service.

A few other services to students that we have been forced to cut include:

In order to balance the budget this year, the Anaheim Union High School District increased class sizes in all grades, reduced the number of counselors, reduced summer school electives, and consolidated four continuation school sites into two sites which necessitated a reduction in teachers, counselors and administrators. In addition, there were many classified and central office administrative positions that were eliminated.

Stanislaus Union School District:

Teachers have been laid off, as well as classified employees, kindergarten aides and others. We’ve increased class sizes at our middle school, eliminating offerings. We’ve decreased instructional supplies, decreased aide time per teacher, decreased or eliminated overtime for classified (including librarians, secretaries, custodial), decreased custodial supplies allocation, decreased other unrestricted discretionary dollars. Major cuts were made to categorical programs.

Jefferson Elementary School District, Daly City:

Midyear cuts present another problem… small COLAs have not kept up with inflation or increases to health and dental premiums. If we have to make cuts we will consider laying off PE aides, library aides, and reducing our custodial staffing. Eventually, we will need to look to eliminating class size reduction for the primary grades and closing schools.

Bonita Unified School District:

Cuts in staffing that include: program specialists, assistant principal, a nurse, an accountant, a night custodian and clerks, just to mention a few. In addition, reductions were made overall in departments and to schools. Cuts at each school amounted to 7%.

Plumas Unified School District:

Reductions in recent years include: 

• Class size - increased staffing ratio from 18:1 at K-3 to 20:1, and from 28:1 at 4-8 to 32:1
• Academic program - eliminated most electives from high school master schedules, going from 285 regular ed high school sections in 2004/2005 to 245 in 2008/2009.
• Library services - reduced from full-time general fund library services at each school to part time categorically-funded (less than half-time at most schools).
• Combination class aides - reduced from 3 hr/day to 2 hr/day - slated for elimination next year as they are categorically funded.
• Custodial services - reduced night custodial staff, reduced classroom cleaning schedule from every night to every other night
• Administration - assigned four district office administrators to additionally serve as part-time school principals, reducing administrative staffing
• Special Education - reduced full-time Resource Program aides to 2 hrs/day (secondary) and 1 hr/day (elementary).
• Home-to-school transportation - eliminated mid-day kindergarten bus routes.
• Non-reimbursed transportation - eliminated funding for field trip transportation.
• Food Services - instituted centralized kitchen, demoted site kitchen managers, reduced site kitchen staff.
• School office staff - eliminated part-time elementary school attendance clerks, reduced full-time high school attendance clerk/registrars by two hrs/day.
• Student supervision - eliminated secondary school noon duty supervisors, reduced elementary noon duty supervisors to 2 per school.
• Athletics - reduced number of coaching stipends from 18 per high school to 8 per high school

Should mid-year cuts be necessary, we would select from the following range of options: Release general-funded temporary teachers, further reduce custodial services, further reduce home-to-school transportation, establish a hard freeze on hiring, out-of-district travel, and non-critical spending, eliminate high school clerk/registrars, eliminate sub caller, reduce district office clerical staff.

Rosedale Union Elementary School District, Bakersfield:

We have already cut class size reduction programs in Kindergarten (picture 30 4-5 year olds), pink slipped 7 staff members, cut after school sports and all field trips, put off starting a new school that is already long overdue, as well as $1.5 million in other all areas across the board.

We would be looking at a reduction in campus security at our middle schools, more staff losses and dropping CSR for third grade if forced to make more cuts. Any more cuts would really be devastating to our district…

Murrieta Valley Unified School District:

We’ve made staffing reductions and stopped all professional development and technology expenditures. If mid-year funding cuts are imposed, we’ll need to make further cuts and
consider work furloughs.

II. TEACHERS:

Teacher Representative from the Val Verde Teachers Association:

Our association did a survey about a year ago with one of the questions being how much do teachers spent out-of-pocket on their classroom per year. The range was from $50-$3000 with the majority of teachers in Val Verde Unified spending around $700 per year on materials. We had a major “paper & copying crunch” last year which of course has continued into this year and I know that many teachers (including myself) have bought our own copy paper when our site has run out. (High stakes testing has made instruction very paper intensive in order to meet the “scoring expectations” of the district.) As for myself, I spend about $1000 a year, which includes ”basic” supplies such as white board markers & erasers, pencils, staples, tape, paper clips, and of course, copy paper.

Teacher Representative from Twin Hills, Sonoma County:

Thank you for your time in bringing this matter to light. I am at Twin Hills Middle School Special Day Class, 6-8 grades. Last year I spent about $200 on laminating film, rewards, pencils, rope for installing a swing in class and lined paper. I also spent $80 on a pumpkin patch field trip, as I did not want to ask the parents to pay $22 for a field trip. (I asked them to pay $10, which just covered the busing.) This year I have already exceeded my budget, and have had to pay out $80 for student rewards and incentives. These are very small items such as gum and 50 cent toys, but are an integral part of our classroom economy and positive behavior reinforcement system. They classroom money I had at the beginning of the year all went to curriculum and supplies such as folders, lined paper, construction paper, markers and pencils.

Teacher Representative from Cotati-Rohnert Park USD, Sonoma County:

When I decided to become a teacher, it was a given that I would be spending my own money on my students. Many of the items that I have bought in the last 16 years were my choice because I thought my students would benefit from supplies, experiences, and hands-on learning. From my first year, I was never given money for supplies. I have bought every poster, video, and experiment necessity that I needed to enhance the learning of my students. This didn’t bother me because they were my kids and they needed something. Now there is not enough money for copier paper in schools. I am buying about a case a year out of pocket. I will continue to do this because I won’t let my kids suffer because of a system that has so many problems.

III. FROM PARENTS:

Examples of what local PTA’s are being asked to fund

Irvine area:

• 4 elementary schools reported being asked to provide additional funding to keep health clerks in their school each day. The amounts ranged from $1000 to $5000 in additional support.
• 2 elementary schools reported being asked to provide additional funding for school supplies and support, one for $2,200 and the other for $8,000.
• 3 elementary schools and one middle school were asked to provide additional funding for library and media support, ranging from $3,500 to $6,000.
• 3 elementary schools were asked to support funding for K-3 music education at costs ranging from $1,000 to $10,000.
• One elementary school and one middle school reported being asked to support counseling programs, one indicating cost of $3,400.
• Additional support for field trip transportation at one elementary school for $4,000.
• Additional funds of $1700 were requested at one school for a behavioral program.
• One middle school has been asked to fund $5,000 for copier maintenance.
• One elementary school has been asked to establish a fund to support field trips for needy families.
• One middle school has been asked to purchase additional computers.
• One elementary school has a budget item of $10,000 for "unforeseen expenses due to state budget cuts."

Capistrano Unified:

• More funding for librarian and health tech to keep the same amount of services as last year. Increased the amount of school supply reimbursements to our teachers and are spending more to keep our workroom supplied with basics like paper clips and paper. Field trips have also gone up because of the increased cost of busses.
• Request to provide extra textbooks for our middle school science (these would be left at home).
• The PTA donated $7,000 to fund 1/3 of a new computer lab. Our old primary grade lab was out of service for most of last year and, with the cuts this year, it would not have been sustainable. Most grades last year could not get lab time because of the constant breakdowns.
• We were also looking into ways to fund the Mind Institute music program for grades 1 -3, which had to be cancelled due to budget cuts. It turned out to be out of our PTA budget range.

Other requests to support:

• Art masters- there is no other art program for the kids of all grades without this
• Music for grades K-3
• Part-time Librarian- the district only pays for one day a week. Obviously that would not be enough for all the classes to go to the library!
• Visitor and volunteer stickers for the office
• Agendas and homework folders for all grades
• Field trips for each grade
• Requests in for items such as LCD Projectors, ELMO equipment, Computers, items of a Technological nature
• Paper (colored) Kleenex pencils highlighters Markers Etc.
• Copy Paper
• Computer Lab Assistant
• Reading Counts Web-based program
• Science Education Supplies
• Custodial Support / Supplies
• Teacher Supplies
• We are replacing the emergency backpacks and supplies in them for all the classrooms; as well as purchasing lockdown kits for the classrooms. We have budgeted $4,000 toward the backpacks and lockdown kits. We fund the traditional PTA funded programs that were cut years ago: assemblies, fieldtrips and art instruction.

Huntington Beach schools:

This year the supply budget has been cut again and we as parents are being asked again to supply school supplies for the classroom (not just our students) and copy paper.
We are paying $5,000.00 worth of instructional supplies and giving $5,000 worth of duplication costs. This is in addition to the usual assemblies, field trips, etc. We did not make these contributions last year.