The San Carlos public schools end this week, and kids are of course getting a bit antsy for summer. I’m excited to attend a lot of the end-of-year festivities, including the fourth grade picnic at Arundel, graduation ceremonies for CLC, Central, and Tierra Linda, and a few more visits to see teachers at the middle schools. We also have two board meetings this week — Tuesday is candidate information night and Thursday we have our meeting to tentatively approve a budget for 2009-2010. See the Agenda Online Calendar for the agenda and posted documents.
To say it’s been an interesting year would be about as dramatic of an understatement as one could make. San Carlos schools continue to perform at the top of their game, with excellent teachers, superior test scores, and significant enhancements to many of its programs, most notably the incredible improvements made to our Special Education program over the last year. So many people — including teachers, administrators, and other staff — have worked so hard, and the results show. But in an incredible juxtaposition, this all happens in the context of the worst budget crisis since the Great Depression. Since the 2007-2008 school year, our funding has been cut by the State by 12-15% (depending how your measure it), and with 80% of a school district’s expenses in employee-related costs, there’s not much to cut besides teachers and other employees who support vital progams.
But it looks like we will squeak by this year with a combination of new parcel tax revenue, budget cuts, a serious reduction of reserves, and a lot of other hard work. See a more detailed analysis in my post here. However, the State financial situation remains incredibly unstable, and even without any further reductions in State funding, we still face serious cuts again this time next year.
So, I remain both frustrated and proud. Frustrated by a state system which is fundamentally broken and, unless completely overhauled, will not invest appropriately in the education of our children The ramifications of this structural underinvestment will be felt for generations to come. But I am also proud of my local community — the people who work so hard, whether to directly teach or support the education of our children, but also to volunteer, raise money, and of course vote for local measures to fund our schools. It is what makes San Carlos a shining beacon in what are otherwise very rough seas.
