As you may have heard, the county officially certified the election. The results are very similar to previous reports, with Measure S only getting 65.6% of the vote. The measure would have passed if only 153 people who had voted no, had voted yes. Another way to look at is that we needed 459 additional yes votes.
In any case, the next few months will be spent in serious discussions among the School Board, the community, teachers, and administrators, on how we cut the budget for next year, and even potentially for this year. There is still a great deal of uncertainty about the state budget. The process will not be fun, but we need to do our best to keep cuts as far away from the kids as possible. As always, I will keep you updated on our progress, and I encourage everyone to attend upcoming board meetings. Here is a link to the board meeting schedule.
On another note, I will be attending the California School Board Association annual conference in San Diego for the next three days, along with Steve Mitrovich, Beth Hunkapiller, and Carrie Du Bois. I went last year and I found it useful, particularly as a new board member. Hopefully we can pick up some interesting strategies to deal with the challenges that we — along with most other school districts in the state — face. I’ll report back on anything interesting.
