Budget cuts

[Jeff Vogt]

Thanks to the Governator and his quest to balance the state budget (hey, he's only been in office four years to do this) California education seems to be in full swing panic mode. There's a list being put together in my district of proposed cuts. One of them of course being the elimination of the Teacher Librarian position. Our school board proposed to eliminate these four positions (yes, there are only four Teacher Librarians for a growing district that includes two high schools, three middle school, four K-8 schools, and 13 elementary schools) in March of last year as a way to balance the budget during contract negotiations with our teachers union. A month later after tremendous support from parents and the media (I am a former TV producer for a local news station) our positions were reinstated. Now it seems to me that my job is at stake again and I don't know if I could fight it as much as last time because the cuts that need to be made are so great (9 million dollars in our district).

Our union/bargaining team has asked for input on what can be cut. Here is my list...

Getting rid of....
-Plato (a drill and kill computer program that is too slow and too many technical problems)
-Nettreker (rarely used)
-Teachers preps
-Avid programs



Reduce...
# of school counselors
# out of town professional growth seminars
# of K-8 schools
# Athletic transportation (Hanford is too far)
# of Security
# of ELD classes



No longer purchase...
-Promethian boards (too many times used as a expensive projection screen)
-laptop carts (too expensive for the amount of wear and tear put on them)



Misc.
-Have Middle School Teacher Librarians split time between the middle schools and the elementary schools that feed into them (District wold benefit from the library skills that could be taught by the Teacher Librarians and maybe the salary cost could be split up between all the schools).