LAUSD board approves $6.3B budget; after-school program saved
Superintendent John Deasy as the school board was set to vote on the 2012-13 budget Thursday, June 28, 2012. (David Crane/Staff Photographer)
5:56:36 PM PDT :: After scrounging up $6.7 million to preserve free after-school care, the Los Angeles Unified board on Thursday approved a $6.3 billion budget that shortens the 2012-13 school year, eliminates thousands of jobs and reshapes some of the district's most iconic programs.
The board's 6-1 vote, with South Bay representative Richard Vladovic dissenting, capped an 11th-hour scramble to salvage the Beyond the Bell after-school program. It operates from 3-6 p.m. weekdays at every elementary and middle school in the district.
About $4 million will come from money the district had set aside to put a parcel tax on the 2013 ballot - although district officials are still considering that plan - and the balance from an unexpected surplus in preschool revenue in the state budget that Gov. Jerry Brown signed on Wednesday.
Prior to the vote, Superintendent John Deasy discussed highlights of the district's "dramatically tight budget" and what was saved - and lost - in closing a $169 million deficit. He also noted that the budget is based on the assumption that voters will pass a state sales and income tax increase on the November ballot and that even deeper cuts will result if it fails.
"We are good until Election Day - everything depends on passage of that," he said. "We simply have to get that (tax hike) passed so we can have a school year."
As it is, the school year that begins Aug. 14 will be two weeks shorter than usual, thanks to agreements by LAUSD's unions to take 10 unpaid days. There also will be about 5,000 fewer teachers, classified workers and skilled tradesmen on the district's payroll, the result of declining enrollment and state budget cuts.
And as bad as the district's financial picture is, officials said, it could have been much worse.
After projections in February showed LAUSD with a $557 million deficit, officials proposed eliminating adult and early-childhood education programs, along with elementary arts programs, expanding class sizes and laying off thousands of teachers and support staff.
An infusion of unexpected revenue from the state helped narrow the shortfall, allowing the district to keep class sizes at existing levels and retain librarians, nurses and high school counselors.
On the school board's orders, Deasy saved the Adult Ed Division, although its budget will be about $47 million instead of the $200 million allocated this year. The focus will be on credit-recovery and English-language classes, with limited job-training and older-adult courses offered on a fee basis.
The district will offer early-childhood classes to the same number of students, but will save money by operating fewer centers. There also are cuts to the program that teaches English to preschool students.
That left the Beyond the Bell Division, which had a $7.3 million budget to operate after-school drop-in centers, and other popular extracurricular activities.
Early on, the district saved Academic Decathlon and the Honor Marching Band, but said it must close two outdoor classrooms and dissolve the Jazz Band and district orchestra. And after a concerted lobbying effort by parents, employees and board members, Deasy found the money for the after-school programs.
The six-hour meeting was the last of the school year. The board will reconvene on Monday, when it will elect its president - a titular post that has been filled for the last four years by Monica Garcia.
Cliff Smith of Roofers Local 36 protests the possibility of more cuts outside the LAUSD offices in L.A. on Thursday, June 28, 2012. (David Crane/Staff Photographer)
Her tenure at the head of the horseshoe-shaped dias prompted a move by board members Vladovic, Bennett Kayser and Marguerite LaMotte - who frequently join together as a minority voting bloc on controversial issues - to rotate the position on an annual basis. It failed 4-3.
The meeting was also briefly disrupted by a demonstration by a few dozen students from Roosevelt High, who were protesting the presence of Planned Parenthood on campus. District police had to clear the meeting room.
The board also heard from Mark Bryant, the partner of Scot Graham, the former facilities employee who leveled sexual harassment allegations against former Superintendent Ramon Cortines. A proposed settlement with Graham fell apart when the district prematurely released details of the deal.
Bryant called on the district to investigate complaints in a timely manner and protect the privacy of those who file complaints against authority figures.
LA Unified OKs $6.3B budget with layoffs, cuts
The Associated Press from the Sacramento Bee | http://bit.ly/L89a9L
Thursday, Jun. 28, 2012 - 8:38 pm :: LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Unified school board has approved a $6.3 billion budget for 2012-13 that calls for thousands of employee layoffs, a shortened school year and cuts to adult education and preschool programs.
The budget proposal passed Thursday night with a 6-1 vote.
District Superintendent John Deasy said at the board approval meeting that program cuts and layoffs would have been worst if employees had not agreed to take 10 furlough days, which will result in five fewer days of classroom instruction.
The district had to cut $169 million due to a loss of state funding.
Deasy calls the budget "dramatically tight" but noted that some programs and furloughs could be restored if voters pass the tax initiatives on the November ballot that will raise more money for education.
About 4,000 employees are slated to lose their jobs.
New LAUSD Budget Cuts School Year
The LAUSD Board signed off on a spending plan that officials say will eliminate thousands of jobs while saving others
Gordon Tokumatsu, KNBC
Thursday, Jun 28, 2012 | Updated 8:27 PM PDT :: With deficits in the tens of millions of dollars, Los Angeles Unified School District board members signed off on a $6.3 billion budget Thursday that eliminates thousands of jobs and shaves as many as 10 days off the next school year. Gordon Tokumatsu reports from Downtown Los Angeles for the NBC4 News at 5 p.m. on June 28, 2012.
With deficits in the hundreds of millions of dollars, Los Angeles Unified School District board members signed off on a $6.03 billion budget Thursday that eliminates thousands of jobs and shaves as many as 10 days off the next school year.
smf: Sloppy math alert: Tens or hundreds of millions. $6.3 or 6.03 billion? The difference is 300 million v. 3 million.
The board voted 6 to 1 to approve the budget that closes a $390 million deficit the district faced heading into the new school year; LAUSD has faced a cumulative $2.7 billion deficit since 2008-09, due in large part to reduced state funding, according to a statement released by the district Thursday night.
"The budget is dramatically tight," Superintendent of Education John Deasy told board members. "You can always advocate for additional things once the school year opens up."
Adult education programs will be hit with 3,200 layoffs and a new payment structure may require some older students to pay fees, which members anticipate will save about $84 million.
Photos and Videos
Deasy:
"Shameful" That...
School's Fledgling
Music Program Threatened
"I want to express the sadness of approving a budget that has less dollars and does the best we can to serve children well in a difficult time, but does not really honor the promise of what we have said we want for our children," board president Mónica García said in the statement.
The district renegotiated union contracts, resulting in shorter school years, and about 1,400 layoff notices will be issued to teachers and support staff. That figure is smaller than originally anticipated.
The statement cited district figures stating the agreements saved more than 6,200 jobs.
"We are basically good until election day," said Deasy, reflecting on the importance of a voter tax initiative backed by Gov. Jerry Brown that will be on the November ballot.
There was some positive news amid the cuts: class sizes will remain the same, librarian and nurse jobs will be spared, and arts and music programs will survive. Thirteen continuation schools slated for closure will now stay open.
After-school programs for the 50,000 children districtwide whose parents work later hours will continue to have a place to go, at least until November.
Tami Abdollah / KPCC
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside L.A. Unified headquarters downtown as the board met inside to discuss the district's dire budget picture. (March 2012)
June 28, 2012 :: The L.A. Unified Board of Education today overwhelmingly approved a $6 billion budget for 2012-13 with $169 million in cuts that manages to saves outdoor education, Academic Decathlon and the after school program, despite hefty cuts to adult education and the layoffs of thousands of educators.
The 6-1 vote, with board member Richard Vladovic voting no, was made reluctantly by board members after about an hour of discussion. Superintendent John Deasy emphasized in a brief presentation that many of the savings were "for one year" and stressed that whether voters approve Gov. Jerry Brown's initiative to raise taxes will "determine the future of most of this."
If the governor's tax initiative fails, L.A. Unified estimates it will have to cut an additional $264 million in 2012-13. Public schools across the state would suffer a nearly $6 billion cut under Brown's budget.
But Deasy said there was no time to discuss "'what if after November,' it’s what must be. We simply have to get that passed so we can have a school year."
The final budget came after months of a changing budget picture that brought hordes of angry protesters, parents and teachers to L.A. Unified's Downtown headquarters.
The district initially unveiled a proposed budget in February that addressed a $557 million estimated shortfall. That figure was later revised down to $390 million after the state Legislature restored transportation funds to schools and the district had higher than expected revenues from the lottery and lower benefits costs.
More than 11,700 educators received preliminary pink slips in March as the district worked to determine what its budget picture would look like. Talks included wholesale eliminations of programs such as adult education and early education.
But savings such as concessions from unions — teachers, administrators and the classified workers union all agreed to take 10 furlough days, effectively shortening the school year by a week — resulted in the lower $169 million cut the board approved today.
Still, under this budget, 3,295 educators will lose their jobs, more than half of those under the adult education program, which is being hit with a $84 million cut, according to district numbers. Cafeteria support will see an $18 million cut, and the school readiness language development program will receive a $9 million cut.
That included trimming $84 million from the Adult Education Division and $9 million from school-readiness classes for young English learners.
Board member Steve Zimmer said this budget avoided "catastrophic" cuts that would have completely changed "public education as we know it in the city of Los Angeles."
But UTLA Secretary David Lyell told members he was concerned about lack of cuts to the central office, which were estimated at $23.6 million in May and ultimately ended as a $4.5 million cut.
"All year long, we've heard about how UTLA members need to sacrifice, and we have," Lyell said. "I've been getting calls from members, there are a few areas of concern where the district isn't sacrificing."
Lyell also questioned increases of tens of millions of dollars in budgeting for general supplies expenditures and instructional materials.
Over the last month district officials have scrambled to find $7 million to prevent the elimination of the after-school care program Beyond the Bell, which serves about 50,000 students from the hours of 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Deasy said today that those funds will come from the $3.9 million that would have been set aside to put the parcel tax on the ballot and other restored funds from the state for early education.
Deasy asked board members to remove the tax from the ballot in order to focus support around the governor's tax initiative in November, which he said is critical for the district's budget.
"We are basically good until election day," he told board members. "And after election day every single solitary assumption in this budget depends on the passage of that" initiative.
Parents and advocates praised the district's effort to save the after school program. Jose Sigala, who heads up the After School Action Coalition, told board members the program provides children with a "safe place to play and learn, but also provides a lot of working families with a sense of relief, where there is a place they can count on to watch their kids in a safe environment."
Board member Tamar Galatzan, who is a mother of two boys who attend LAUSD schools said she uses the after school program and knows how important it is. She said working to save that program illustrated to her how complex the budget process and system can be.
For example, though some parents found the program so valuable they were willing to pay, the district could not institute a sliding fee schedule under current state law. Charging for the program would have changed its status from drop-in program to child-care program, which would have required staffing and other specific requirements in place. Though schools could apply for state waivers, those would have to be sought and granted individually.
Galatzan said she would be working next year to change state law to allow districts to charge a sliding fee for after-school drop-in programs, to prevent them from being categorized as child care, so that L.A. Unified can keep them open.
"So many of these things in this budget, we're trying to be creative," Galatzan said. "...But frequently there are these barriers that we didn't construct that are put in our way
